Shockwaves
by kates1304
Summary: Edward and Serena are forced to pull together when Eleanor delivers a bombshell, but can they support their daughter without killing each other? A few parts.
1. Chapter 1

**Edward, Serena and Eleanor piece. A few parts :)**

A Thursday night like any other. He finished work, he headed home with a Thai take away and he poured himself a cold beer from the fridge. He could have pressganged Ric into going for a drink under the pretext of talking Primary Defence (but really swapping stories about ex-wives) but tonight he didn't fancy it. He'd had a bad day in which he'd argued with not one ex-wife but two, and he still had a blazing row looming with the third, and the truth was he was knackered. Once upon a time he'd thrived on endless drama, which was probably a good thing given his endless propensity for fucking up, but at some point, probably around about the time that his third marriage hit the skids, he had started to crave a quiet life. He wanted to work enough to maintain some kind of lifestyle and pay the wives, he wanted to see his kids occasionally and he wanted to spend the weekends on his boat. After thirty years working stupid hours as a doctor, and now that he was on the wrong side of fifty, he thought he could be forgiven for wanting to slow down but apparently the women disagreed. Ex-wife number one wanted to harangue him about their daughter's tuition fees, number two was being a pain in the arse about access to their son and number three was still arguing the toss about the divorce settlement. Then there was Eleanor wanting him to pay for her to spend New Year in New York with her new University friends and Mark wanting money to go on some football camp or other. Everybody wanted a piece of him, and it didn't seem to matter to them that the coffers were empty. He wasn't even sure that they'd noticed, and he was absolutely positive that they didn't care. They expected him to find the money for them to do what they wanted, which was why he had four maxed out credit cards and why he was avoiding calls from his bank manager. He could barely still afford the rent on his studio flat, and he was seriously considering giving up drinking and smoking as luxuries that he couldn't afford. Not tonight though; tonight he needed something to get him through.

He was crouching on the balcony, smoking a cigarette and nursing his second bottle of beer, and he nearly didn't hear the doorbell. Nobody ever came over at all, let alone dropped in unannounced, so he wasn't expecting it to ring and when he heard it he nearly dropped the beer with shock. Then the alarm set in. No good could ever come of somebody pitching up on his doorstep at ten o clock at night. At best it would be one of the wives coming to have a pop in person. At worst, it would be the police coming to tell him something terrible. The most likely hypothesis, though, was that one of the kids had fallen out with their mother and had come to tap him for cash and sympathy.

'Alright, I'm coming' he called, quickly stubbing out the cigarette and tossing the evidence over the edge of the balcony into downstairs' pot plant. 'I said I'm coming' he called again as the ringing became more impatient. He crunched a polo mint, stuffed the empty cigarette packet in the back of the kitchen drawer and went to open the door.

'Daddy!' as soon as he opened the door she flew into his arms, nearly knocking him off his feet as she did so. Her hair and her clothes were soaking wet so clearly she'd been out in the downpour earlier, and her eyes were rimmed with red. She'd been crying. For a moment he wondered what the hell Serena had done to get their daughter into this state because he hadn't seen her this upset since she was thirteen and her pony had died, but then he remembered. Eleanor wasn't living with Serena anymore, she was eight weeks into a University course and she was supposed to be in York.

'Eleanor, what's the matter?' he muttered, taking her inside and sitting her down on the sofa. He'd never been any good at dealing with his daughter's histrionics. He usually found that throwing money at the problem worked wonders, but that wasn't an option this time because he didn't have any money to throw. 'Why aren't you at University?'

'Why haven't you been answering your phone? I tried to call you' she replied through a torrent of tears. For a moment he was bemused because it hadn't rung but then he realised; the battery was dead.

'No juice' he replied, reaching out and sticking the thing on charge because although sometimes being non contactable was the only way to get any peace and quiet, it tended only to store up trouble for him. Like this; if only he'd answered her calls then perhaps she wouldn't be quiet so hysterical now and she certainly wouldn't be running the risk of catching a chill from her soaking wet hair because he'd have picked her up from the station. He was mildly surprised that she hadn't just climbed in a cab and expected him to pay on her arrival anyway. 'What's going on?'

'I've told you about plugging your phone in' she replied in a manner that made him suspect that she was intentionally avoiding the question.

'It's charging now' he replied, glancing at it as it buzzed back to life and immediately assailed him with eight text messages and fifteen missed calls. Clearly she had been really desperate to get hold of him. Not only her though; there was one from Bethan, probably wanting round two of the argument over Mark, and four from Serena. That was the most worrying thing of all. Serena only ever called him in cases of absolute dire emergency. The fact that she'd called him four times would have left him utterly panic stricken had his daughter not been sitting in front of him, alive and well, when he received the calls. 'What's going on, Els. Why is your mother trying to call me? Is it your grandmother?' he asked, because something happening to Adrienne was just about the only thing that he could think of that would send both mother and daughter into a meltdown.

'No, no. Grandma's fine. It's mum. We've had a row. We've had a row' she replied. He'd guessed that much. The fact that Eleanor was here and Serena had called suggested that their daughter had flounced out. He was more interested in why Eleanor was not at University.

'About?'

'It's a long story' she replied tearfully, wiping her face with the tissue that he held out to her.

'Well we have all night. Alternatively I could return your mother's call and…'

'No!' she reached out and snatched the phone from his hand 'Daddy, you mustn't'

'Why?' he asked, even more worried now because she seemed to want his attention but she didn't want to share with him what was upsetting her. 'I should at least let you mum know that you're here. She'll be worried about you'

'I doubt that'

'Believe me, she will' he replied, taking the phone back from her and firing off a quick text to Serena before his daughter could stop him. 'Now, what's all this about?'

'You're going to be angry'

'Why? What have you done?' he asked. The truth was, he didn't have much grounds for trying to discipline his children when it came to delinquent behaviour because anything that they did he'd done the same, if not worse. The problem was that they knew it and they wouldn't hesitate to remind him of the fact if he got ideas above his station. The fact that Eleanor cared that he'd be angry was worrying in itself.

'I'm pregnant' she replied, and in that instant his world came crashing down around him. His little girl. Pregnant. By the kind of stupid, feckless idiot who couldn't use a condom properly. No wonder Serena had gone ballistic.

'Are you sure?' he asked, fighting the urge to shout because it wouldn't really help anything. Eleanor had clearly already had the riot act read to her by her mother, and she didn't need it from him too, even if this was the one act of delinquency that he could successfully take the moral high ground on.

'Of course I'm sure. I wouldn't be telling you otherwise, would I?'

'I suppose not' he replied, going over to the kitchen drawer and pulling out the cigarettes. Let her judge him for the fact that he still smoked when he'd let the whole family think that he'd given up a decade ago. Let her tell her mother. Let her tell whomever she liked. He needed a smoke. 'Who is the father?'

'You're smoking, daddy' she looked shocked but he ignored her. She wasn't wriggling off the hook that easily.

'Don't change the subject. Who is the father?'

'A boy' she replied, totally unhelpfully.

'I'm going to need a little more information than that. A boy at university?'

'No'

'Who then? You didn't know any boys before you went away' he replied, not particularly enjoying the bitter laugh that she gave at his naivety. Of course she knew boys, she just didn't broadcast the fact to him.

'Just a boy. In Thailand'

'Thailand?' he snapped, his heart sinking. 'As in the holiday that you went on because you did so well in your A levels? Because you're so _sensible_?'

'Yes' she mumbled, staring at the ground. She knew perfectly well that he'd fought her corner with her mother for her to go on that holiday, not to mention footing the bill for the flight and the hotel. He had persuaded Serena to show Eleanor a little trust and now this. Somehow he thought that in her mother's eyes, this was going to end up being his fault.

'Jesus Christ, Ellie. Do you even know his name?'

'Tom' she replied sheepishly.

'Surname? Address? Nationality?'

'He was from somewhere in America. Georgia I think'

'So just the ten million odd people then. Do you have any idea how to contact him'

'No. He's not on Facebook' she replied miserably, as if that was the only way of contacting anybody of her generation 'I didn't know I'd ever need to contact him, did I? It was just a stupid… night'

'Stupid is right. I take it your mother hit the roof'

'Of course she did'

'Jesus' he let out a low, weary moan and sank his head to his hands. 'You do realise that we're going to have to discuss this. The three of us'

'What? Now?' Eleanor looked alarmed.

'No. In the morning. Right now I need some time to think about this and I suggest that you have a shower and get changed out of those wet clothes' he told her and to his relief she did as she was told. She stood up and sloped off into the bathroom to change, leaving him to creep out onto the balcony because it was the only place that he was going to get any peace to think about what the hell they were going to do.


	2. Chapter 2

'I take it you're holding me responsible for this' as opening gambits went it was a brave one. He'd given it a lot of thought while hiding from his daughter on the balcony, drinking three beers and chain smoking a dozen cigarettes, and he'd come to the conclusion that the only way to deal with Serena's rage towards him was the confront it head on. By taking some of the blame on his shoulders it would take the wind out of her sails. That was the theory, at least.

'Damn right I am. You and your bloody trip to Thailand'

'It wasn't my trip! I thought that she should be allowed to go because her friends were'

'Well clearly they're all more mature than Eleanor, given that none of them managed to come back pregnant by a boy whose name she doesn't even know. I mean, what kind of little…'

'Serena!' he cut in. Nobody said things like that about his daughter. Not even her mother. Not even if there was an element of truth in it. She was his little girl and therefore, even if she had behaved reprehensibly – which she had – he wouldn't have that kind of thing said about her. 'She's made a mistake. Which of us hasn't…'

'Well I certainly have. Nearly all of them feature you quite heavily'

'I agree that it's a mess'

'A mess?! Understatement of the century, Edward. It's a catastrophe'

'It's hardly that, Serena. We're all still alive. All still healthy. It's just a setback' he replied, managing to sound a lot calmer than he felt because the truth was that he'd have been tempted to agree with her if it wasn't totally going against the grain.

'A setback? Edward, our daughter is eighteen and she is pregnant. That's not a setback. At best it's a bloody waste of fifteen years of school fees'

'Which I paid' he reminded her. The waste had crossed his mind, but he'd forced himself not to dwell on it. It wasn't Eleanor's fault that the hundred thousand odd pounds that he'd shelled out on her education could help to get him out of the serious financial straits that he found himself in. 'And it's not necessarily a waste. She can still finish her education. Is she even planning to keep the baby?'

'So she says' Serena replied tersely 'She hasn't thought it through, of course, but I presume she's pretty set on it because otherwise she'd hardly tell us, would she'

'No, probably not' he agreed wearily. Nobody in their right mind would bring this kind of shit storm raining down unless they were pretty sure that they had no alternative. 'We need to talk about this. Me, you and Eleanor'

'I agree. We need to talk some sense into her'

'You want to talk her into having a termination?' he asked. The truth was that the idea of being a grandfather didn't exactly fill him with joy, but he wasn't going to force his daughter into doing anything that she was going to regret either. 'That's not exactly what I meant, Serena'

'It's the only possibility. She is at law school, Edward. She's going to be a barrister. She can't be saddled with a child'

'I think we need to have this conversation with Eleanor, not with each other. Are you free tomorrow morning?'

'I'm working. So are you' she pointed out.

'Consider this me calling in with a family crisis. Eleanor takes priority'

'So what? Our daughter behaves like an irresponsible child and you want to compound it by expecting me to rearrange my life around it'

'Yes, I do' he retorted. He wasn't used to taking the moral high ground over Serena. He rather enjoyed it. 'Tomorrow morning. We'll be with you at ten. Eleanor is staying here tonight'

'In your shoebox? Where? You haven't got room to swing a cat' she snapped. She had a point. His flat was tiny, so tiny that he had only a fold out sofa bad.

'She can have the bed, I'll have the floor. Not that it's really the point. I'll see you at ten'

'Fine. But tell Eleanor that I'm far from happy about this'

'I don't think I need to tell her. She gets it' he replied, ringing off purely because he knew that nothing annoyed his ex-wife more than being deprived of having the last word.

ooooo

'Do we have to do this, daddy? Can't I just go back to university' Eleanor whinged. They were parked up outside Serena's house, both of them steeling themselves to go inside. In the window he could see his ex-wife already, twitching the curtains, waiting for them to ring the bell. He wondered whether his daughter had a point; he could put her on the train, bury his head in the sand and hope that it all went away. It wouldn't, of course, but it would buy him a few more days or weeks of a simpler time before the full impact of this latest disaster smacked him in the face.

'Not without clearing the air with your mother and making a plan of action. You can't just pretend that this isn't happening'

'If I was trying to do that then I'd hardly have told you and mummy, would I?' she pointed out in that annoying, overly reasonable tone of voice that she'd learned from her mother.

'No, I suppose not. Are you sure that you want to do this?'

'Do what?'

'Keep the baby. You're young, Ellie. You've got the whole of the rest of your life to settle down and have kids. It doesn't need to be now'

'But I'm pregnant'

'I know that. But you don't…' he trailed off. He couldn't say it. Not to his daughter. It was too weird. 'There are options. That's all I'm saying'

'I know. And I've considered them and decided that it's not what I want. If it was then I'd have had all this sorted without making her hate me'

'She doesn't hate you' he retorted, knowing that it was true, and that Eleanor knew damn well that it was true. Serena could be short tempered and sometimes spoke without thinking, but she adored her daughter and would do no matter what creative ways the girl found to mess her life up. 'She's just disappointed. As am I'

'Oh good, the "more in disappointment than in anger" speech. I wondered how long that would take'

'What do you want me to say? I'm not going to say that I'm thrilled; you're about ten years, a decent career and a husband who can support you away from this being good news'

'Fine. But it's not a disaster like mummy said'

'Your mother's idea of disaster can sometimes be a bit… she just wants you to fulfil your potential, and having a child at eighteen isn't really doing that'

'And you?'

'Me?' he asked, confused.

'Do you think it's a disaster?'

'I think it's not ideal' he replied, opening the door and getting out of the car because Serena's curtain twitching had reached fever pitch and he wasn't going to give her another excuse to have a go at him by being late. 'But at the end of the day, I just want you to be happy. If making the best of this is what is going to make you happy then you know I'll support you' he told her, squeezing her hand as he climbed out of the car and braced himself to face the full force of Serena's wrath for daring to support their daughter.


	3. Chapter 3

She saw them coming up the drive and braced herself for the onslaught. There was little in life that she enjoyed less than being subjected to a combined onslaught from her daughter and her ex husband. When they presented a united front there was no arguing with them. As she watched them coming up the drive she could tell that Eleanor had wrapped daddy back around her little finger. No matter how reasonable and calm he had been on the phone, she had sensed that he was appalled by their daughter's behaviour. She had wondered whether, for the first time in living memory, they might actually be able to present a united front rather than undermining each other. It was no wonder that Eleanor had turned out to be irresponsible and a little spoilt because growing up her parents refusal to agree on anything had ensured that there was always somebody to take her side. She had always gotten her own way. Today she wondered whether Eleanor had finally disgraced herself to such an extent that she had lost Edward's unwavering support but as she saw her ex husband guide their daughter up the drive she could see that they were still as close as ever.

ooooo

'Come in' she greeted them tersely as she opened the door. Eleanor looked drained and tearful which would normally have made Serena take her in her arms and give her a hug. This time she was still too angry.  
'Thanks' Edward replied overly brightly. Eleanor said nothing. She simply stared straight ahead until the cat appeared beside her and she reached down to scoop her up. Serena stifled a sigh. Eleanor had never even been able to get her head around feeding and defleaing the cat. How the hell was she going to cope with a child. It was lunacy. Surely sooner or later - hopefully sooner -  
Eleanor would see that.  
'Coffee' she muttered, heading into the kitchen to pour herself a large, black coffee because she needed something to do with her hands. Otherwise she would be tempted to shake her daughter, as if it would knock some sense into her.  
'Yes, coffee would be great!' Edward replied, too brightly. He had a way of expanding to fill any gap. While she and Eleanor would silently seethe with each other, Edward would increase in volume and cheer as if he could even up the balance. It was part of the reason why once upon a time, in the early days, their relationship had worked so well. They had been polar opposites who, together, made one perfectly balanced person.  
'Eleanor, what are you having? I presume you won't be drinking coffee' she said, her words dripping with sarcasm that made Edward wince. He'd never much liked it when she was sarky. He called it the lowest form of wit.  
'Um water is fine' her daughter mumbled.  
'You know where the tap is. Help yourself' she replied, passing Edward a coffee, irritated that over ten years after the divorce she still made his coffee perfectly, almost on autopilot. She wanted little details like that to be expunged from her mind but in ten years she hasn't managed to get him out of her system. Living with his biggest fan hadn't helped. It was difficult to move on from Edward when her daughter idolised him. He was always popping round to pick Eleanor up and charming Serena with smiles and bonhomie and all she ever heard from Eleanor was that he was wonderful.  
'Thanks. Shall we sit down?' he took the coffee from her and strolled through to the lounge as though he lived there and had the god given right to go where he pleased. It was particularly galling as he'd never lived in this house. This was the house where she and Eleanor had been supposed to have a fresh start, away from reminders of him, yet here he was, tainting everything all over again. There was a good reason why before today he had never been allowed beyond the front door.  
'We'll sit here' she retorted, pulling up a chair at the kitchen table. It wasn't that she minded sitting in the lounge or found the kitchen more comfortable. It was simply that she wanted to put him in his place; remind him who was boss.  
'Fine' he shrugged, coming back to the kitchen, his smile not faltering at all. Irritating man; she had wanted him to be embarrassed or at least a bit disconcerted.  
'So Eleanor' she turned to her daughter, because goading Edward wasn't going to resolve the unholy mess that her daughter had got herself into. The sooner they made a decision - the sensible decision where Eleanor spent the afternoon at a discrete private clinic and went back to university to get on with her life - the sooner she could go back to having nothing to do with Edward. 'Have you seen sense?'  
'Serena...' there was a warning note in Edward's voice. He didn't like the fact that she was trying to bulldoze their daughter.  
'I'm keeping the baby' Eleanor replied with a steely glare that Serena recognised as the one she sometimes practiced in the mirror herself. 'I've thought it through'  
'How can you still think that you can keep it if you've thought it through?' she snapped. It was a disaster. Her daughter was apparently old enough to get herself into this mess but not mature enough to realise that there was only one way out of it. 'Where will you live? And what about your degree?'  
'I've spoken to my tutor. I can transfer back to Holby at the end of term. And we'll live here'  
'Oh no' she shook her head, realisation suddenly dawning. In Eleanor's childish, half baked plan she was going to move home, have the baby and Serena knew how that would end. She would end up being a mother to her grandchild while Eleanor acted like a big sister and Edward wandered in and out playing the benevolent grandfather, a role that he was made for. She wouldn't have it. She'd done her time childrearing, she didn't have it in her to do it again. 'You're not doing this under my roof. If you're hellbent on this lunacy then I'll do what I can to support you but I'm not living with a newborn'  
'Fine. We'll live with daddy then'  
'Me?' that had caught Edward's attention. For the first time since they'd arrived he'd stopped looking annoyingly sanguine about the situation and started looking alarmed. He didn't want to be saddled playing primary care giver to their grandchild any more than she did. 'Eleanor, you've seen my flat. Where do you think you're going to put yourself, never mind a baby?'  
'I'm sure you'll find a way, Edward' Serena replied sweetly. Suddenly she was enjoying herself, watching him squirm. It was still a disaster but she'd take her fun wherever she could find it.  
'Yes, daddy. We can buy a house'  
'Strange though it may seem, Eleanor, I don't exactly have the money for a house sitting around for a rainy day' he pointed out tersely.  
'So you're both throwing me out?' there daughter asked, angry but also on the verge of tears.  
'No' Edward sighed. He rubbed his forehead wearily and Serena could see that he was already doing the maths in his head and finding that it wouldn't go. 'If you want to live with me then we'll find a way. It's just going to take some thinking about'  
'Thank you' Eleanor gave him her best "little girl" smile, then glanced at her mother and scowled. Little brat, Serena thought to herself. She would always love Eleanor fiercely but sometimes she really didn't like her very much at all. 'Daddy, we should get going. My train...'  
'Isn't for another...' Edward started to say, then read between the lines and realised what his daughter was saying. She'd got her own way and they were done. '... fine, we'll go for some lunch first. Fancy joining us, Serena'  
'No thank you. I don't see much to celebrate and I need to go to work. As do you incidentally'  
'I've switched shifts with Ric. I'm due in at 6. I'll see you later' he replied, glancing up to see that Eleanor had already stormed out. 'Will you be around later? We can have a coffee. Somebody needs to have an adult conversation about this and Eleanor isn't going to'  
'You mean you agree with me? And you still let me be the big bad wolf'  
'Of course I agree with you. But if she's bent on this, better she isn't estranged from both of us. We'll talk about it, regroup and talk to her again' he told her. She was stunned. It was the first time ever he'd been even close to being on her side, even if their daughter didn't realise it yet.  
'Alright, we'll have coffee later' she agreed. They would go somewhere outside the hospital. She didn't want any colleagues overhearing. But maybe, if they presented a united front for once, this could be fixed.


	4. Chapter 4

As planned he turned up for work at six. He did a handover with Ric, knocked out a couple of patients and assessed a couple more, and then he managed to slip away. He wasn't really looking forward to the conversation with Serena - he wasn't some kind of sadomasochist - but he knew that it had to be done. Talking things through like adults with Eleanor was only any good if Eleanor was prepared to behave like an adult. The fact that their daughter actually believed that he was in a position to just buy a house, like it was an impulse purchase, suggested that she was not on their planet. She was going to need a reality check at some point, but when she had it he and Serena needed to be in synch. There was no point in talking if Ellie was going to play one of them off against the other and get away with it.

ooooo

'Serena, can you talk?' he poked his head around the door to the office. Normally he would just stroll in and accost her but he knew how it irritated her and he didn't want to start this conversation off on the wrong foot.  
'Yes' she glanced up from her paperwork. She looked exhausted and pale. Clearly she hasn't slept the night before which was understandable. After Eleanor's bombshell he hadn't slept either. Probably neither of them was in a fit state to work but they were also both used to powering through on coffee and adrenaline. Medical school, being junior doctors and then having a newborn almost as soon as they were senior enough to work slightly more sociable hours meant that neither of them had a decent nights sleep for the whole of the nineties.  
'Here?' he stepped inside and turned to lock the door behind him. He didn't want this being gossip fodder for their colleagues. Not until they'd got their heads around it and he'd steeled himself for the inevitable grandad jokes. He didn't think Serena needed to worry about granny jokes; nobody would dare, not even him.  
'No, not here. I need a drink, a large one, and I don't want to have to worry about being overheard'  
'Albie's then?'  
'Don't be ridiculous. I said I didn't want to be overheard, not that I want the entire hospital to be in the know. No, I know a quiet wine bar. Can you get away for an hour'  
'You tell me; you're the boss' he pointed out. Other men probably wouldn't be terribly easy with being answerable to an ex wife, especially not one with Serena's capacity for vitriol, but it didn't bother him. He'd made his peace with the fact that she was more ambitious than him a long time ago and anyway, the state of his finances meant that he couldn't afford pride.  
'Well then you can have an hour. You can drive since you won't be drinking' she added and with that she grabbed her coat and headed for the car park leaving him to follow her.

ooooo

'So you agree that Eleanor's plan to keep the baby is...' she trailed off, groping for the right word. One that demonstrated the stupidity without being disparaging enough that he would feel the need to weigh in on Eleanor's behalf.  
'Short sighted?' he supplied wearily 'Yeah, it is. But this has to be her decision Serena. She has to live with it for the rest of her life and I'm not about to push her into something that she'll regret. If we do, she'll end up hating us for it and I couldn't stand that'  
'You don't think that in five years time when all her friends are in good jobs and she's saddled with a child she'll wonder why we didn't stop her?'  
'Probably, sometimes. Just like sometimes you cursed me for persuading you to have a baby when Eleanor was up screaming half the night. But at least this way she'll know that it was her decision'  
'But she was going to be a lawyer. It's different for you; you've got Mark who might make something of himself. Eleanor is my only child and I don't want her to ruin her life'  
'Firstly, the fact that I have Mark doesn't make me care any the less about what Eleanor does. Secondly Eleanor will still make something of herself because she's a bright girl and she is as stubborn as you are. And thirdly, I know you haven't met Mark but believe me, Eleanor is still the child most likely to be a success'  
'Inherited his mother's brains, has he?' she asked. She managed not to sneer, and he was mildly impressed with her restraint. He knew how much she loathed Bethan and that she disliked Mark purely by association.  
'It's not that so much. If he ever stopped playing football and started paying attention in school then he could probably do quite well' he shrugged. He loved his son but the boy's insistence that he was going to be a professional footballer was a source of concern because he'd stood on enough football pitches in the rain to know that it wasn't going to happen. The boy simply wasn't that good. He too needed a reality check but right now he could only worry about one child behaving ridiculously and Eleanor had his attention. 'Anyway, we're not here to talk about Mark. Where do you think we should go with Eleanor?'  
'I think that we need to talk to her. Are you serious about working out something so that she can live with you?'  
'If necessary yes' he replied but the thought of it made him feel despondent. It wasn't that he didn't want to live with his daughter because it would be nice to have her around, but he knew that this was the last thing standing between him and selling the boat. He should have done it years ago, it was ridiculous to have debts when he had £400,000 of yacht sitting in a harbour somewhere, but he loved that boat. He was going to miss it badly.  
'Where will you find the money? I thought Mandy had rinsed you'  
'It's Mindy and she did' he replied wearily 'I'll worry about funding it. Are you sure you don't want Eleanor to live with you?'  
'If she does then I'm going to end up bringing up that baby. I don't have the energy to do it again. The hours I work are too long and she'll expect me to be at her beck and call'  
'If that's honestly how you feel then I guess I'm going to have to look for a proper place to live' he sighed. He wished that he could have a glass of wine but he had to go back to work. If he drank and then went back then Serena wouldn't hesitate to report him. She, on the other hand, was on her second large Shiraz.  
'You're thinking of selling the boat?' she guessed. She wasn't a stupid woman, she knew where most of his money was tied up and the air of despondency confirmed it.  
'The only thing I love more than the boat is the kids' he shrugged 'I should probably have done it years ago'  
'Well then I suggest we give it two weeks. Let the reality of what she is doing sink in, and then we'll go to York and talk to her. See if she's still set on keeping the baby. Maybe she'll have seen sense'  
'Maybe' he replied but they both knew she wouldn't. Eleanor had gone too far down this road now. A change of heart would be embarrassing and he knew that Ellie wouldn't do it. She had made her decision and she was highly likely to stick to it.


	5. Chapter 5

'Bethan, you can't do this!' he shouted, glancing anxiously at his watch. Serena was due here in less than fifteen minutes for the drive to York and ex-wife number two was on his doorstep. If Serena found her here there was liable to be a catfight but the only way he could let Bethan go was if she was taking Mark with her.  
'I thought you wanted access. Congratulations; this is access'  
'No, it isn't. This is you dumping our son on me because it suits you to do so' he snapped, shooting Mark an apologetic smile. Normally he wouldn't be unhappy to have his son around, even at no notice, but today was difficult. He and Serena were meant to be going up to see Eleanor, ostensibly to discuss the logistics of her move back to Holby and her pregnancy but really to talk some sense into her. That conversation was hardly likely to happen if he had a surly eleven year old boy in tow. Worse, Mark was going to expect his undivided attention. He wanted a kick about in the park and a pizza, not a four hundred mile round trip to see the sister he didn't really know.  
'Do you have better plans?' Bethan asked, an edge of nastiness in her voice as she dared him to say that she did in front of the boy who already thought he was a bit of a waste of time.  
'Not better, believe me, but still non negotiable. There are things that I need to sort out with Eleanor'  
'I might have known' Bethan rolled her eyes. Her relationship with Eleanor had always been somewhat combative, not helped by the fact that Serena used their daughter to get at him and Bethan. Consequently Bethan thought Eleanor was a little brat and regularly accused him of preferring his daughter to his son. That wasn't really true but today's shenanigans were going to do little to dispel the suspicion. 'You don't get to pick and choose when you're a father, Edward. You're taking Mark today and that's an end of it' Bethan snapped. She dropped a distracted kiss onto Mark's forehead that the boy squirmed out from under and stormed back to her car without a backwards glance.  
'Are we going to the park, dad?' Mark asked hopefully, glancing at the football that he carried under his arm.  
'Not exactly' he sighed as Serena screeched up outside the flat just as Bethan pulled away. Thank god they didn't actually come face to face but he could tell from Serena's face that she'd spotted her usurper and that she wasn't a bit happy about it.  
'Was that...' Serena through open the door and stormed up the driveway, stopping as she saw the small, sandy haired, football toting boy that she didn't recognise. 'What's going on, Edward? We're supposed to be going to York. Please tell me you haven't fouled up your access visits'  
'That would imply that there was any kind of schedule' he sighed, reaching for his coat and car keys, wondering how much money he was going to have to give Mark for him not to tell Bethan was an awful time he was about to have. Probably enough to pay for the three week football camp in Spain. It was a good job that he was about to free up some cash by selling the boat, he thought to himself, but he still hesitated to say that Eleanor had done him any kind of favour. 'Serena, I don't think you've met Mark'  
'No' Serena and the kid eyeballed each other. Each of them had heard enough about the other to make it a pretty sure thing that they weren't going to get on. Bethan would say that any grief Mark gave Serena was karma for the shit that Eleanor had given her over the years.  
'He's going to join us for the trip to York' he sighed, relieved that Mark at least didn't look unhappy with the idea.  
'Are we going to see Ellie?' he asked hopefully. 'At university? Do you think she'll take me to the union. I saw on TV...'  
'No, Mark, I don't, but if you play your cards right I'll get you a drive thru on the way' he offered, relieved that Mark had taken the news relatively well.  
'Do you really think that this is appropriate, Edward?' Serena snapped.  
'No, but I have no choice' he lowered his voice and gestured to Mark to get in the car. 'We'll find a cafe in a park. He can keep himself occupied with his football for hours'  
'And what about on the way there? I thought that we were going to strategise' Serena pointed out. The strategising wasn't something that Edward was heartbroken to be missing out on because he knew that it was simply a subtext for finding ways to bully their daughter.  
'He'll be plugged into his iPad before we even hit the M5' he replied, locking up the flat behind him as Serena tossed her head and flouced over to the car to move Mark who had cheekily installed himself in the front seat. As he watched his ex-wife fruitlessly argue with his son for a minute and then give up and climb into the back he realised that it was going to be a long day.

ooooo

'Did you plan this?' she demanded. They were stopped at a services on the M5, collecting Starbucks coffees for him and Serena and donuts for Mark. He had bought them five minutes privacy by giving the boy money to play in the small arcade and he wasn't all that surprised that Serena was using it to make his life miserable.  
'Why on earth would I plan this?' he asked wearily. He'd made it his life's work for the past decade or so to keep all his wives and associated progeny as far apart as possible. He certainly wouldn't choose now of all times to bring Serena and Mark crashing together. 'It hardly makes my life easier having a disgruntled eleven year old in tow who will probably give his mum chapter and verse on this'  
'My heart bleeds' Serena replied, her voice dripping scorn. 'So this isn't some plan you've cooked up with Eleanor to try and convince me that she'll make a half decent mother because she can be nice to her half brother for an afternoon?'  
'No. For one thing, the last time Eleanor and Mark saw each other he bit her and she threw his football into a river. I have no reason to think that this will be any more civil'  
'So it's just a fuck up then'  
'It's Bethan reminding me who is boss' he replied wearily 'it's not ideal but then in an ideal world we wouldn't be doing an eight hour round trip to convince our daughter not to screw up her life'  
'That's true' Serena agreed, the wind seemingly knocked out of her sails by the reminder of why they were making this trip at all. Not that he seriously thought it was ever far from her mind but the mention of it seemed to have made the crisis hit her afresh.  
'It'll be alright, you know. Whatever happens we'll make it work. We always do' he pointed out and he knew it was true. He and Serena had been battling through less than ideal circumstances for most of Eleanor's life but somehow they always seemed to make the best of it. He had no reason to think that this would be any different.

ooooo

'Hey brat!' Eleanor greeted her half-brother with a grin and a cheerful high five. Clearly the antipathy between them had waned in the three years since they'd seen each other, which was no bad thing as far as Edward was concerned. He'd always found playing referee between his children to be a tiresome and thankless pastime. 'What are you doing here?'  
'Mum was going out. Dad says you'll take me to the union!'  
'No, I said she wouldn't' he cut in wearily, almost impressed with his son's cheek. 'Why don't you go and kick your ball about?' he added, gesturing to an empty end of the car park. He was aware that sending his son to play football near traffic wasn't going to win him any responsible parenting prizes but he needed the boy to occupy himself so that he and Serena could do what they'd come here to do. After three and a half hours in a car with a disgruntled ex-wife and a boy with a six sense for pressing everybody's buttons he was knackered. He didn't want it to be a wasted effort.  
'Psycho bitch still showing you who's boss?' Ellie asked, earning the first half-smile of the day from Serena and a warning look from Edward.  
'Not in front of Mark, eh. She's still his mum'  
'Poor kid' Eleanor replied with a grin. She seemed in better spirits than the last time he'd seen her, which was good, but her smile faltered as she saw the scowl that had reasserted itself on her mother's face.  
'Perhaps we could spend the day in the park. Find a cafe and talk' he suggested, forcing himself to sound upbeat. To overcompensate for the atmosphere between mother and daughter. To his knowledge the two hadn't spoken since Eleanor had flounced out of the kitchen the morning after the bombshell, and both were clearly still smarting. Briefly he considered leaving them to kill each other and going to play football with Mark but he thought better of it. Letting them at each other's throats was a policy that had potential to backfire very badly and it was him who stood to her caught in the crossfire if it did.  
'Fine' Eleanor shrugged 'Whatever. I still don't see what there is to talk about'  
'Living arrangements for one thing' he replied tersely, glancing at Serena who shot him a look. A look that said "go on then, coward".  
'I'm coming to live with you'  
'That's fine, once I've sold the boat and found a house. But we'll be talking months not weeks'  
'You're selling the boat?' Eleanor looked astonished; she knew how much he loved that boat. 'Why?'  
'Why do you think? Money doesn't grow on trees' he replied, giving Serena a warning look just in case she felt it wise to pipe up about number three clearing him out. 'Are you sure you don't know how to contact this Tom? It would be a massive help if he'd pay his way' he added. This was one of the questions that he and Serena had agreed to put to their daughter. There was something about the story of the American lad in Thailand that didn't feel right, they both thought that, and it was a subject that needed further discussion. If nothing else, life would be so much easier with child support coming from the stupid little sod.  
'I've told you daddy, no' Eleanor replied. There was belligerence in her voice and a look on her face that he didn't much like. Unless he was mistaken it was an expression that he faintly recognised as guilt. 'We didn't exactly swap phone numbers. We only overlapped in Thailand for one night'  
'And none of your friends...'  
'No. And no, he's not on Facebook' she added. That was what didn't smell right to him. Eleanor added everybody she ever met on Facebook. It was as second nature to her as swapping first names; as soon as she met a new person the phones were out and they were adding each other. If this Tom was different then if he knew his daughter she'd have been more likely to go back to her friends and snigger at him for being weird than spend an ill advised night with him.  
'Well that's a shame. Anyway, once I've got the boat sold and found us somewhere you're welcome to live with me. But in the interim you're going to have to live with your mother' he told her. That was another agreement with Serena; she was more than happy to live with Eleanor before the baby was born. It was afterward that she had the problem with. As far as he was concerned that was a good thing; she and Eleanor would have a chance to clear the air while he got himself and his finances together.  
'Oh dad...' she pouted and gave him her best guilt tripping face but years of practice made it easy for him to ignore it.  
'That's the plan, Eleanor' it was Serena who cut in, clearly smarting from their daughter's reaction to having to stay with her for a few months. 'Take it or sort yourself out an alternative'  
'Maybe I'll talk to grandma and...'  
'Don't you dare. If I find out that your grandmother has given you a penny to subsidise this stupidity then there'll be real trouble'  
'Fine' another pout, this time accompanied by a glower. In his direction. Not for the first time he wondered why, when Serena and Eleanor upset each other, it always seemed to be him that got the blame.  
'Shall we go for some lunch?' he asked, keen to defuse the situation, ideally before Mark kicked his ball under the wheels of a car and then followed it. That kind of thing would be a bugger to explain to Bethan.  
'Yes, let's' Serena replied, forcing a smile. 'We can talk more there' she added. Eleanor opened her mouth to protest but by the time she worked out what to say it was too late; Serena had walked off to the car and Edward was herding up Mark.

ooooo

'You know there is a third option. Apart from keeping the baby or a termination' Serena said casually while they waited for their food to arrive. They were in a garden of a pub and once again Mark had been dispatched to play with his football. The lack of attention paid to the boy was something that Bethan would no doubt make him pay dearly for but he had little choice. If Mark got wind of Eleanor's predicament then he would tell Bethan and Bethan would tell everybody they knew. It just wasn't worth the aggravation.  
'What's that?' Eleanor asked sullenly. Clearly she was still far from forgiving Serena for the arguments of a couple of weeks ago, and the conversation starting now was going to do nothing to make her any happier. That was why Serena was making this suggestion; she had agreed with his initial assessment that it was better for Eleanor to have an issue with one of them than both of them. Because of the way things had panned out so far he was the natural choice to be Eleanor's ally, and anyway, historically in the good cop/bad cop routine he was always good cop.  
'You know there are lots of couples who would love to have a baby...'  
'You want me to have it adopted?' Eleanor looked less than enamoured with the suggestion and Edward decided that it was time to get involved.  
'I've heard worse ideas, Ellie. The baby gets a loving family and you get your life back'  
'But the baby can still have a family that loves it; our family!' she protested, her eyes filling with tears.  
'It's just not practical. You're a child yourself' Serena pointed out, earning a filthy look from Eleanor.  
'I was old enough to get pregnant' Eleanor pointed out, as if that was a good thing.  
'Debatable; you were young enough to get knocked up after a one night stand. That doesn't exactly speak volumes about your maturity'  
'Because when I'm as old as you no man will be stupid enough to have a one night stand with me?' Eleanor retorted and Edward felt his blood run cold. He'd seen the look on Serena's face only a handful of times in ten years of marriage and over ten years of divorce. It was the look that she got right before blowing a gasket. It scared the living day lights out of him.  
'Eleanor...' he cautioned, wracking his brains for anything he could say or do to pour oil on the troubled waters. There was nothing; anything that he said was likely to make it worse.  
'In fact, you're probably jealous. I bet you haven't had sex since dad left!' Eleanor continued, warming to her theme.  
'Eleanor!' Ten seconds too late Edward realised that there was only one thing to do; take Serena's side and come down on Eleanor like a tonne of bricks before she said more unforgivable things that she wouldn't be able to unsay. 'You don't ever talk to your mother like that! It's totally out of line and disrespectful'  
'What do you care?' Eleanor grumbled, her face flushing because the truth was, she knew he was right. If she was in any doubt, the fact that Serena was bright red and trembling slightly should have proven the point.  
'I care because you've been bought up better than that, and whatever differences your mother and I may have had, I respect her' he snapped 'Now go and get in the car'  
'But we haven't eaten yet'  
'I don't care. This conversation is over and you're going back to University'  
'You're sending me to my room?' Eleanor gave an ill advised snigger that made every muscle in his body tense.  
'Don't push it Eleanor. Car. Now.' he snapped and to his surprise his daughter did as she was told. She got up, sloped back to the car and waited for him.  
'Do you want to come back to the university with us or wait here and I'll come and get you' he asked gently. He could see that Serena was she'll shocked and that what she really needed was some time alone not a car journey with their daughter.  
'Come back and pick me up please'  
'No problem' he replied, catching Mark's attention by putting two fingers in his mouth and whistling. He gestured to the boy to get in the car. 'Half an hour?'  
'Sure' she nodded but didn't look up from the point on the table that she was staring at. 'Thanks Edward'  
'No problem' he replied, giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze. It could just as easily have been him on the end of Eleanor's vitriol as Serena and god knows the girl would have had enough material to needle him with. He felt more than a little bad about having let his ex-wife take the brunt of it. As he walked back to the car he stopped by the bar, asked the barman to give Serena a double scotch and left a twenty-pound note to pay for that and a refill. Under the circumstances it felt like the least he could do


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N Thanks for your great replies :) All will be revealed about Tom... eventually!**

'Mark, headphones on, please' he instructed. It probably wasn't good parenting to be so obvious about when he wanted his son not to be listening to his conversations, but he found it difficult to care. Eleanor and her sudden rampant attitude problem was a much bigger concern than the damage that he probably wasn't doing his son. 'Eleanor, what the hell has gotten into you?'

'She asked for it' his daughter grumbled in just about the most stupid, inadequate defence he'd ever heard.

'Did she hell. You were totally out of order. You owe her a massive apology'

'Yeah right; I like my head attached to my shoulders'

'Give her a few hours. Phone her tonight and for god's sake grovel. You're in enough trouble without starting a feud with your mother. Believe me, that woman can hold a grudge'

'Why do you have to treat me like a stupid child'

'Because that's how you're behaving. I don't underestimate how rubbish it must be to be you right now but it's not exactly easy for your mum and me either. This isn't something that we ever wanted or expected to have to deal with. If we're getting it wrong then I'm sorry but we're doing our best'

'She's just so judgmental. Always has been. I never meet her standards'

'To be fair to her, Eleanor, a teen pregnancy doesn't meet my standards either, or your own if you're honest about it. I don't know if you're angry with yourself or just angry with the whole world but whatever it is, don't take it out on your mother. She deserves better'

'Says the man who cheated on her. Twice. At least'

'I don't pretend to be perfect but don't think for a second that my mistakes give you carte blanche to behave as badly' he retorted, screeching up to a space in the car park by the halls of residence. 'Remember what I said; tonight you call her and you apologise'

'Whatever' Eleanor retorted, bored and truculent. And yet she had the nerve to complain about being treated like a teenager.

'Eleanor, you want us to treat you like an adult. It's time to start acting like one' he snapped and with that he pulled the door shut and drove off leaving her standing in the car park.

ooooo

By the time he got back to the pub and sent Mark to play football the empties on the table in front of Serena told their own story. The drink that he'd left her had gone and a few more besides.

'Did you drop her home?'

'I left her where we picked her up. I read her the riot act'

'You didn't need to do that'

'Yes I did, Serena. She was way out of line. For what it's worth she knows that. It's probably hormones talking' he added, making sure to chuckle as he said it so that she knew he was kidding. To his relief she managed a sad smile. 'When Bethan was pregnant with Mark she smashed the headlights on my car for putting too much milk in her tea' he added with a laugh. Any story that painted Bethan - Serena's most hated of her successors - as a psychopath tended to go down reasonably well. 'I'm sure that once she's had a chance to think about what she's said she'll apologise'

'Great' Serena replied hollowly. She didn't want an apology, she wanted the conversation never to have taken place. He knew that but unfortunately he couldn't turn the clock back. If he could, he'd have frog marched Eleanor outside at the first hint of trouble.

'Shall we head back to Holby. I don't know about you but I've lost my appetite'

'What about Mark?'

'If I give him a McDonalds to eat on the way and let him stay up and watch the football tonight he'll think he's had a good day' he replied. It wasn't really true but he was already going to get hell from Bethan about this debacle. He might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.

ooooo

She sat in the front seat of his car, pressed her head against the cool glass of the window and wished that she were anywhere else. Today had been a disaster from start to finish and it wasn't even really Edward's fault. He'd done his best with a difficult situation, he'd taken her side when it mattered and he'd probably stored up no end of grief with that psychotic second wife of his. He had done nothing she could blame him for. The guilty party, the only guilty party, was Eleanor. It wasn't exactly the first time her daughter had lashed out and said some hurtful things, but normally it was like water off a duck's back to her. This was different, and not just because Eleanor's comments were grounded in truth (they were, but her assessment of her mother's alleged feelings of jealousy and insecurity was totally flawed). It had gotten to her primarily because Edward was there, and the last thing she ever wanted was for Edward to think she was some kind of sad, desperate, dried up old woman. As long as he was beating off women with a stick (and she'd seen him around Marie Claire, she knew that he was still a beacon for impressionable young nurses) she wanted to be seen to be doing the same with men. Having her daughter shouting about her not having had sex in god knows how long did nothing for her self respect anyway, and in front of Edward it was intolerable. That, on top of the disappointment of her daughter's predicament and the fact that she'd had to spend the day with Edward's other child, which stirred up emotions that she didn't particularly want to examine too closely, had been the straw that broke the camels back. After he'd frog marched Eleanor out of the pub she'd downed her first double whiskey and cried into the second. By the time he got back she was on her third, and well on her way to being helplessly drunk, but he'd dealt with it without batting an eyelid. He'd seen her drunk in the past, more times than she cared to think about, and he knew exactly how to deal with her. He took her out to the car and sat her in the passenger seat, then nipped over to a petrol station and got two bottles of water and a cheap plastic bucket, just in case. The last thing he wanted was to have to spend his Sunday morning cleaning the upholstery. He made her drink the first bottle of water, put the second where she could reach it and waited until she'd fallen into a restless sleep before pulling off. When she awoke they were pulling off the ring road in Holby, which was strange for a start. For his house, where she'd left her car, they needed the previous exit. Either he was lost or else he was taking her home.

'What are you doing?' she asked, blinking hard, sniffing the air. The car stank of fast food, probably because Edward's idea of parenting his son was to ply the boy with junk food, and she had to crack the window because it turned her stomach.

'Taking you home. I can hardly let you drive'

'I'm sure I'll be under the limit now' she protested, but she knew that he was right. At best she'd have to call a cab from his house, which was a lesser evil than having him take her home and trample his size tens through her house. The Edward free house that he was never supposed to be able to leave his mark on.

'Like hell you will. You had six doubles that I counted, not to mention the large glass of wine when we got there. You won't be sober until the morning, at best' he retorted. 'We have enough problems without you ending up in jail on a drink driving charge'

'Fine' she huffed. She knew that it was pointless arguing because he was right. God she hated it when he was right. And anyway, there was no point in disagreeing because they were already pulling up outside her house, gravel spraying from beneath the tyres. 'Thanks' she managed as she opened the door. It almost choked her but she did it because for the first time in years they were being properly civil to one another, and there was no need to spoil it by being rude. She got out of the car, her heels sank into the damp gravel and she stumbled, but she didn't have a chance to fall because he was there. She didn't know how he made it around the car so fast, but suddenly he had his arms around her and he was leading her into the house. He sat her on the stairs, disabled the alarm – how the hell did he know the code?! – and then gently led her upstairs to bed.

'I'll run your car back in the morning. Well, probably the afternoon; once you've slept it off' he told her with a grin as he lay her down in the bed, removed her shoes and pulled the cover over her. He didn't try to undress her, which was a wise move on his part – she wasn't so drunk that she wouldn't have punched him if he tried – and then he shut the door behind him and slipped downstairs. The next thing she heard was the sound of his wheels crunching over the drive and then she was alone. Only then did the tears start; she couldn't bear it when he was nice to her.

ooooo

'Dad, mum's here' Mark woke him up with a sharp dig in the ribs and he groaned and glanced at his watch. It was half past seven. Far too early for a Sunday morning, but then the woman had probably planned to pitch up at the most antisocial time she could manage. That was just typical of her. Mark was still wearing his pyjamas, Edward was asleep on the floor and the flat was in disarray with the evidence of last night's pizza and Playstation binge strewn throughout. Even if Mark failed to tell Bethan exactly what had gone on, the evidence of him bribing his son with junk food and a go on a game that he was too young for was there for her to see. She was going to go ballistic.

'Bloody hell, it's early' he muttered, getting up, scratching his head and wondering if he had time to clear up the worst of the mess before Bethan battered the door down. By the time he'd assessed the situation it was too late anyway; Mark had opened the door and she was standing in the doorway, hands on hips, toting an incriminating empty Fanta bottle that she'd picked up from the bedside table. Mark was absolutely not allowed fizzy drinks, or pizza, or to play Call of Duty. There was no doubt in his mind that he was about to be in a lot of trouble.

'Edward, have you done anything with Mark other than give him junk food and play inappropriate games?' she snapped 'Mark, get dressed' she added, as an afterthought to their son who had wisely gone back to bed and pulled the covers over his head. He didn't want to hear his parents argue; what he really wanted was to be asleep, like any sane person would be at this hour on a Sunday.

'Yes, actually, we had a day out yesterday'

'What kind of day out?' Bethan demanded, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. She knew that he wasn't the kind for educational daytrips. In the best-case scenario, he'd have taken their son to watch the football and let him eat hotdogs. He almost wished that that were the case; it was better than what he'd actually done.

'We went to York and we saw Ellie' Mark told her cheerily. He still wasn't getting dressed; he was too busy hammering nails into his father's coffin, but Edward suspected that he didn't know that he was. He was just pathologically honest, and he didn't seem to realise that yesterday fell under the heading of unmitigated disaster. In fact, if anything Mark seemed to have had quite a nice time on the trip to York. If he did, he was the only one.

'Oh great. So you get one day with him and you drag him halfway across the country on some kind of mercy mission for Eleanor? What was the problem this time? Had daddy's little princess run out of nail polish remover? Or perhaps she just needed a light bulb changing'

'Actually no' he replied through gritted teeth. What he really wanted to do was shout back at Bethan for being so unpleasant about his daughter, and in front of Mark, but he held it in. All that would achieve was ensuring that he didn't see Mark again for another six months. 'It's complicated and none of your business'

'She's going to have a baby offered Mark at the same time, not realising that there were some things that it was better not to share with his mother. Edward watched as Bethan's face lit up and she laughed like it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. Not for the first time he wondered why he'd ever married this woman because she really was a total bitch, but then he remembered; she'd fallen pregnant and had managed not to seem totally psychotic until after he'd made the grievous error of leaving Serena.

'Mark, get dressed' this time it was him snapping at their son because it was time Bethan left – before he gave her some home truths that she would use to make his life miserable for the next seven years – and she wouldn't go anywhere without Mark.

'Actually Edward, before we go I have something that I need to tell you' she told him, helping herself to a glass of water and perching on the edge of the sofa bed without being invited. 'We're going home'

'Home?' he frowned, bemused by what she was saying. Home was a townhouse on the outskirts of Bath that he'd had to provide her with at great expense. It was hardly news that that was where she and Mark were going.

'Yeah. Sydney' she clarified, and with a crashing sense of realisation he understood. She was taking his son and travelling halfway around the world to live in the place where she'd grown up. She'd moved to England from Australia in her early twenties and aside from an annual trip back and never shown any particular inclination to return there. She had a combative relationship with both her parents and most of her friends had moved away. There was no sense in the decision and briefly he wondered whether she was doing it just to make him suffer. It was the kind of short sighted and spiteful thing that she would do. 'Now that Mark's pretty much finished primary school it's the perfect time' she added cheerfully. 'I'm just going to need you to sign the paperwork and…'

'Get real, Bethan. I'm not signing anything' he replied, lowering his voice because Mark was in the bathroom and he didn't want his son overhearing. 'He was born here, he's an English child. I'm not letting you take him out of the country'

'Oh I think you are. If I have to I'll take you to court. Given your track record with seeing him, and the fact that when you do see him all you do is cart him around after your other family, feed him junk food and let him play violent games, do you really think that you're going to win?' she added. As much as it pained him to admit it, she had a point. He could ill afford expensive legal fees and it was a battle that he wouldn't win. He hadn't been a great parent to Mark, he couldn't pretend otherwise, and a messy legal battle would create more problems than it solved.

ooooo

It took three large, strong, black coffees and a long, hot shower before she felt even halfway human again. She knew that she'd made a spectacle of herself the previous evening, and in front of Edward, which made it worse, and then there was what Eleanor had said. It sent shivers down her spine to think of her daughter screaming about the most personal part of her life in the middle of some grotty pub. Since then, Eleanor had kept a low profile, which was probably for the best. She loved her daughter, always would, but right now she couldn't speak to her. She could barely think of her without gritting her teeth. It was half past ten when the doorbell went and for a second she wondered who the hell was calling on her at this hour on a Sunday but then she remembered. She'd left the car at Edward's and he hadn't allowed her to drive home. He'd said something to her about dropping it off but at the time she'd been so drunk that it had gone in one ear and out the other.

'Your car' he greeted her with a small smile, holding out the car keys for her to take. He looked like she felt – tired and strung out – but she couldn't see why. So far he'd been remarkably calm about Eleanor's predicament, and anyway, last time they'd spoken he'd managed to avoid falling out with their daughter. She could see no reason for him to look like somebody had drowned his puppy.

'Thanks' she took the keys and gave him an inquisitive look. 'What's the matter with you? You look like you've got the weight of the world on your shoulders'

'It's nothing' he sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets 'I should go. I'm sure you've got plans'

'Yeah, trying to drown my hangover in coffee' she replied as he ambled down the driveway. 'What are you doing, Edward? You'll never catch a cab from here'

'I was going to walk'

'Walk?' now she really was confused 'Back to your flat? It's eight miles and it's pouring with rain!'

'I've got a headache. The walk will do me good' he replied. He didn't sound convinced. He looked so totally miserable that she suspected that he was only walking because he didn't have the energy to sort out an alternative.

'The walk will give you pneumonia. At least come inside and wait to see if the rain stops' she told him and to her surprise he walked back to the house and came indoors. He kicked off his shoes out of habit because over the years she'd trained him well; he knew better than to walk outdoors onto her carpets. 'Now what on earth has gotten into you? Is this about the boat. I know that you don't want to sell it but…'

'It's not the boat' he replied wearily 'it's nothing'

'It doesn't look like nothing. Has Eleanor done something?'

'No, Eleanor is in enough trouble without pissing me off as well. It's Bethan'

'Ah'

'She has decided that she's moving back to Australia and taking Mark'

'Ah' she said again. She didn't know what else to say. She had spent years wishing that Bethan would move to another country, or another planet, or just crawl back under the stone where she came from, but now that it had happened and she could see how unhappy Edward was she didn't feel much pleasure. 'Can she do that?'

'After yesterday she can pretty much do what she likes, although her mind was made up before that debacle. That's why she dumped Mark on me; so that she could go and talk to her solicitor. Get the paperwork in order so that I don't accuse her of kidnap'

'Did you sign it?'

'Of course. There's no point in having an unpleasant custody battle that I would lose. And it's right for Mark; he's excited about going, and he'll love being on the beach. Whenever he's been out to visit her parents he's loved surfing and all that. He'll have a great time'

'And you?'

'I'll have more than enough to keep me out of mischief with Eleanor's antics' he replied, managing a smile, albeit a half hearted one. 'Has she called?'

'No. She'll go to ground for a couple of weeks in the hope that I stop being pissed off and call her'

'And will you?'

'Not likely' she replied with a small laugh. 'Eventually she'll realise that I'm not going to and she'll call me'

'What about when she moves back here? It's only four weeks away'

'Maybe she'll have to stay with you. Or if we really want to make her suffer; your mother'

'Don't even joke' he replied with a laugh. Nobody much liked his mother, even him. If they made Eleanor live with her then one would undoubtedly end up murdering the other 'I've called the marina about selling the boat. Apparently there is a waiting list for them so they think I'll get a decent price and that it should only take a couple of weeks'

'Are you sure about selling it?'

'No, but I have no choice. Eleanor needs somewhere to live – as do I, that flat is impractical – and apparently I'm also going to be shelling out for tickets to fly halfway across the world' he replied with a shrug and a forced smile.

'I must say I'm impressed. I always thought that you were…'

'Selfish and irresponsible?' he interrupted with a more genuine smile this time. 'Yeah, I know. To be fair, I gave you more than enough reason to think like that. Look, the rain's stopped!' he added, gesturing out of the window, changing the subject because they were dangerously close to having a serious conversation about something other than their daughter, the hospital or the weather. She was grateful to him for listening when she said that she couldn't handle anything other than keeping him at arm's length. 'I'll be off then. Let me know if Eleanor gets in touch?'

'I wouldn't hold your breath' she replied. It would be another two to three weeks before Eleanor realised that her mother wasn't going to sulk herself out and make the first move. 'Thanks, Edward'

'No problem' he replied with a grin, and then he was gone and for the first time she didn't feel violated for having had him in her house.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N Thanks for the replies!**

'Morning dad!' she greeted him with a grin. She was quite unreasonably cheerful for this hour on a Saturday morning. He, on the other hand, was in a foul mood. He'd been at the hospital until gone midnight, watching his ex-wife up to her elbows in some poor soul's abdominal cavity after a car accident, which would have been fine had he not had to be up at 5am on his day off to drive to York and collect his daughter. Serena and Eleanor were still not speaking which meant that while he was halfway up the M1 before it was even daylight, his ex-wife was tucked up in bed. He didn't really resent Serena for it – even if she had been speaking to Eleanor, he would still have been the one going to collect their daughter, at most she'd have been asleep in his passenger seat – but as the rain had pelted on the windscreen and he whacked the heaters up to stay warm, it had felt like a thankless task.

'Morning Eleanor' he managed, stifling a yawn. 'All packed?'

'Mostly' she replied brightly. She was on her best behaviour, which was unnerving in itself, but he put it down to the fact that she knew she was in a hell of a lot of trouble and was putting in a belated attempt at buttering him up. Normally it would have worked but not this morning. He was too tired to be anything other than cantankerous.

'Define mostly' he replied as he stepped into her room and realised that "mostly" meant that she'd packed the stuff she cared about. Her clothes were packed in a suitcase with her hair straighteners on top and her laptop was folded down, but other than that precious little effort had been made.

'Just a few books and stuff' she shrugged, stepping past him and starting to stack them in a box. 'I didn't want to risk lifting anything'

'Don't push your luck' he advised her darkly. He would carry her bags downstairs – he would have done, whether she was pregnant or not – but he wasn't about to do her packing in case she did herself damage lifting a legal textbook. 'You do the books, I'll make a start on these folders'

'Fine' she replied cheerily, then thought for a second and backtracked although he didn't really know why 'Actually, why don't you do the books and I'll do the folders. Some of that stuff can be thrown out'

'Fine' he shrugged 'Not that much space in the car anyway. I didn't realise that I was going to need to hire a van'

'It's not that much stuff'

'It's never going to go in your room at home' he replied. The money from the boat had come through within twenty four hours and it was good money because thanks to the waiting list the management company had been able to start a minor bidding war and he'd ended up being paid over the odds. He'd gone out that day and bought a new build that they could move into immediately. It meant that they had somewhere to go; it also meant that he had a house that he would never have bought under any other circumstances, and that he was going to make next to no money on when Eleanor upped and moved out as she undoubtedly would in a few years.

'I can't wait to see the house'

'I wouldn't get too excited' he replied wearily. The house served a purpose, that was just about the most positive thing that he could say about it. That and that it meant that nobody had to go and live with his mother, which thanks to Serena's refusal to have Ellie in her house or her mother's was the only realistic alternative.

'But it is exciting' she told him, the smile not slipping from her face. She still thought that her predicament was good news. It was exhausting because the more time passed the happier she became and the more he wanted to drink himself into a stupor over it.

'Can you do me a favour?' he asked, changing the subject because even discussing it made him want to throw himself down the stairs. 'Here's a fiver. Can you go and get me a double espresso and whatever you're having from Starbucks? I've got a splitting headache'

'Sure' she replied, putting the money in her pocket 'I'll be back in ten minutes' she added and then she was gone and he was alone.

ooooo

Without her there to distract him, it took him no time at all to pack her books into boxes, so he started on the folders, stacking them neatly in a packing crate. He didn't even notice the document wallet fall from the top shelf until it landed with a crack and disgorged its contents all over the floor. Without thinking about it he knelt to pick up the paperwork, realising only as he bundled it onto the desk that regardless of what the folder was labeled, these were not notes on Jurisprudence. Far from it. They were print outs of emails. An insurance policy. Clever girl had worked out that the recipient could have a good go at deleting all trace of these electronically. They would never be truly gone, of course, but nobody was going to waste too much time looking for emails in relation to a fling between two consenting adults, even if one was abusing a position of trust. Eleanor had realised that and she'd taken print outs of the incriminating email trails. For a second he felt pride at how enterprising she had been to get the man to commit himself in writing. Then it dawned on him that he had been well and truly deceived. He sank down onto the bed, reading the emails over again, then stood straight back up again, wondering if this was where… he shook his head hard. It was too horrible to think about; his little girl and a man who was old enough to know much better. To avoid thinking too hard about what had actually happened he pulled out his phone and did a quick search, hoping that the man would be a young postgrad but one glance told him that he wasn't going to be that lucky. The face staring back at him was a man not much younger than himself and if Eleanor hadn't chosen that moment to walk back in he would have punched the wall in temper.

ooooo

'You're getting on well' Eleanor remarked as she came back in, still smiling, holding out a large coffee for him and a Danish pastry for her. She had no idea that she'd been rumbled.

'Yes' he looked around him, grateful that Serena wasn't there to lose her rag. She would have to be told eventually, of course, and he was probably going to be the messenger that got shot, but at least this meant that he could deal with the lowlife scumbag on his terms and have it sorted by the time Serena even found out about it. 'Eleanor, is there anything that you'd like to tell me?'

'Like what?' she asked, her face a picture of innocence. Then she saw the folder in his hands and the sheaf of emails and the colour drained from her face. 'Daddy, it's not what you think'

'Either it's what I think or else it's worse' he replied, throwing the folder down on the bed. The two alternatives were either that she'd had an affair with her lecturer and been caught out, or that she'd had an affair with her lecturer and was trying to con him into paying for a baby that she really had conceived in Thailand with some American kid. In a way he would have preferred the latter because at least that was she was the one taking advantage, not being taken advantage of. 'Tom doesn't exist, does he?'

'No'

'Jesus, Eleanor' he put his hands through his hair, clawing at it with frustration. 'How could you be so stupid. Your lecturer for god's sake! He looks about my age!'

'You've already googled him then?' his daughter sat down heavily on the bed 'It's not really about how old he is, you of all people should understand that'

'What do you mean "me of all people"?' he demanded, as if he didn't know. If anything Serena was going to blame him for this too. If anything had given Eleanor the idea that it was acceptable for her to have a relationship with a man thirty odd years her senior then it was the fact that his second and third wives had both been more than twenty years younger than him.

'The age difference between me and Tom is exactly the same as the difference between you and Mindy'

'Oh, so his name was real at least' he snapped 'And the difference is that Mindy was eight years older than you are now when she got married. And that I wasn't supposed to be her teacher'

'What are you going to do? Are you going to tell mum?' Eleanor was close to tears, her earlier good mood shattered by his discovery. For about a nanosecond he felt bad. Then he looked at the email again and the rage was back.

'Right now, Eleanor, I don't know' he sighed, snatching up the emails and reading them again 'Your mother will have to be told, and so will the University. They can't have a lecturer going around preying on impressionable students. We have a responsibility to…'

'No!' she yelped and burst into tears 'Dad, you can't! He got me my place at Holby, that was the deal'

'What deal?' he asked, realising as he read the emails properly that Eleanor had traded her silence for him getting her into Holby and giving her five thousand pounds. Apparently they could now add blackmail to their daughter's list of accomplishments, along with the straight As, the grade 8 in clarinet and the teenage pregnancy. If anything he thought that she'd probably sold herself short but he dismissed the thought. He wasn't about to criticise her for not being very good at blackmail.

'I didn't know what else to do' she told him through her tears, and it hit him afresh how very young and immature she was. Far too young to be having a baby.

'You could have told us' he sighed 'You should have told us. And I am going to have to talk to somebody about this. You do understand that'

'What about my place at Holby?'

'You let me worry about that' he sighed. It seemed to him that he had two choices. He could go to the university, demand this lecturer's resignation and hope that it didn't have implications for his daughter, or he could go to the lecturer and make their silence a hell of a lot more expensive.

'But daddy…'

'Wait here' he told her, kissing her on the forehead and wiping away her tears. Suddenly he was back in his comfort zone. Not with the whole teenage pregnancy thing – he was never going to be comfortable with that – but drying her tears and fixing things for her came naturally to him in a way that being angry with her never would. 'Finish packing. I'll be half an hour'

'And then?'

'Then we'll drive home, just as planned. But I need to sort this out first' he told her, and with that he pocketed the offending emails and went hunting for blood.

ooooo

She was sitting in the kitchen, sipping her third cup of coffee and reading the newspaper when the phone interrupted her nice, quiet Saturday morning. For a moment she was started because she wasn't expecting any calls, and the sight of Edward's name on the caller ID did nothing to reassure her. He was supposed to be picking Eleanor up this morning and bringing her back to Holby. The fact that he was calling her suggested that things were not going to plan.

'Hello Edward' she answered the phone wearily 'What's the matter?' she added. Edward called her for two reasons; to talk about their daughter or because something had gone awry and he needed their help. Since the unpleasant argument in York they hadn't discussed their daughter at all because he wasn't prepared to be drawn into a feud and she had nothing to say on the matter anyway, which was further evidence that there was something to worry about.

'I've just found something out. I think you should know' he sounded tense but he also sounded upset, and that was the most worrying thing at all. Edward generally didn't upset easily. She was the one with the emotions whereas Edward was frustratingly calm and laid back. The fact that his voice wobbled and he sounded like he was either going to cry or punch the wall terrified her. If he hadn't made it so plain that the problem was something that he'd learned, not something that had happened, his tone of voice would have left her terrified for their daughter's health. 'You're not going to like it'

'What is it?' she asked wearily. It couldn't be worse than teenage pregnancy, surely, but whatever it was, Edward had taken it worse. 'You're worrying me, Edward'

'You remember Tom. The boy that…'

'I'm hardly likely to forget him, am I' she pointed out. Tom had destroyed her daughter's life, and hers by proxy. If she ever laid eyes on the boy then she wouldn't be responsible for her actions.

'He doesn't exist. Well he does, but he's not a teenager from America and she didn't meet him in Thailand' he explained slowly, every word seeming to hurt him.

'Who is he?' she asked, suddenly afraid because if she'd just had an ill advised tryst with some boy at University then Edward wouldn't be on the phone to her, he would be teaching the kid about responsibility.

'Tom Lawler. He's a former barrister who left the Bar to teach four years ago. Presumably because a university is fertile ground for those that want to have flings with eighteen year olds'

'Her lecturer?' the words came out as a gasp. It was what she had feared from the moment she'd first heard about this fiasco – there had always been something about the story of the boy in Thailand that didn't quite ring true – but as Edward spoke it still hit her like a sucker punch.

'Yes. I don't know what to do, Serena. Should I talk to the University? Or to him? Or to his wife?'

'His wife?' she asked wearily. As if it needed to get any worse, there was another woman involved. Her daughter had become the kind of woman that she had always despised; the kind that thought nothing of breaking up other people's marriages. 'Well given the number of marriage wreckers you've exposed her to over the years…'

'Not now, Serena. You can blame me later' he told her surprisingly firmly 'His University biography says that he's married with two children. Eleanor had a pretty good go at blackmailing him herself, which is another issue; the place at Holby was a condition of her not telling the world that he'd made a first year pregnant. I don't want to do anything that's going to follow her around for the next however many years'

'So what do you want to do?'

'Go and see him. Make him pay child support without destroying his career and his marriage. I don't want Eleanor to be a home wrecker anymore than you do, and he'll be no use to her if he's destitute himself. Is that… do you have any other suggestions?'

'I want him destroyed' she replied. Given half a chance she would happily have driven to York herself and made Tom Lawler rue the day he'd ever heard the name Eleanor Campbell, but Edward was right. Eleanor was the priority and no matter what arguments were festering between her and her daughter, she wanted to protect her. That meant not doing anything that was going to give her a reputation that she'd find difficult to shift. 'But I think you're right. Go and talk to him, but don't make it easy for him'

'Easy for him?' at that Edward laughed, a bitter, hollow laugh. 'Serena, don't be surprised if you're stumping up bail for me tonight after I assault him'

'Nobody would blame you if you did' she replied 'Do you want me to come down'

'No, then it would be you getting arrested for assault. I'll deal with it, Serena. I'll call you once it's done'

ooooo

He stormed the corridors, searching for Tom Lawler's office, but it was actually surprisingly easy to find. There was a map as soon as he walked into the Faculty of Law, and an index of all the lecturer's offices. Lawler was in room 1.02b, and he found it with no problem at all and walked in without knocking. He didn't care that he was interrupting a tutorial; he wasn't prepared to wait patiently to confront the man who had taken advantage of his daughter.

'I need a word' he told the man brusquely, staring at the spotty faced teenaged boy whose tutorial he had interrupted until the lad got the message and rushed off muttering about rescheduling. All the time Lawler sat and stared at him from the other side of the cheap MDF desk, pale faced and alarmed. Edward didn't bother to introduce himself but the man would catch on soon enough; there surely couldn't be that many first year students that he'd impregnated and then tried to pay off with an insulting amount of money. Once the kid was gone and the door slammed behind him he pulled up a chair and looked the man squarely in the eye. The desire to reach across the desk and throttle him was almost overwhelming but he told himself that it wouldn't do anybody any good, although if he did he knew that Serena would be cheering him on in spirit. 'Okay, this is how this is going to work. You're going to pay my daughter a reasonable amount of child support for the next eighteen – no, twenty one – years and I'm not going to report you to the university'

'Your daughter is…?' Lawler asked, catching on. The fact that Lawler even had to ask was a bad sign for the other female students, but Edward fought back the desire to storm out and go straight to the Dean of the university. For Eleanor's sake he wanted to contain this, not blow it up.

'Eleanor Campbell. You remember; the first year whose life you wrecked'

'Ah yes, Eleanor. She wanted to transfer back to Holby. Homesick or something. I spoke to a colleague in the Faculty there and…'

'I know exactly what you did. I've seen the emails' he snapped 'This is your one chance; you can make an agreement with me today – one that doesn't insult my daughter more than you already have – and I'll walk out of here, you'll never see us again. Alternatively I can talk to the University, your wife…' he glanced at the photograph on the desk and offered the woman that he'd never met a silent apology for threatening to destroy her life. In the photograph with her were a couple of pasty faced children. It didn't give him much hope for the gene pool. '… maybe the Bar Council' he added. If you want me to try and destroy your life then believe me I'll take great pleasure in doing so, but I'm offering you another way. If you've got an ounce of sense or decency, you'll take it'

'What kind of sum were you thinking of?'

'Five hundred pounds a month'

'You think I have that kind of money?'

'I think you'll find it' he replied, knowing that the man would do what was necessary to stop him telling the world what he'd done 'Do we have a deal?'

'Yes' the man replied after a long pause in which he debated telling Edward to do his worst and decided that it would be unwise.

'Good' he snapped, ignoring the man's hand that he held out to shake on it. It would be a cold day in hell before he shook this man's hand. 'One more thing. If I get so much as a hint that you've been anywhere near another student then I'll destroy you'


	8. Chapter 8

They drove home in silence. He was still too much in shock at the news that his daughter had fallen pregnant by her lecturer to be up to much conversation, and she knew when she was in disgrace and it was best to keep quiet. She plugged herself into her ipad and watched back to back episodes of Glee while he drove far too fast down the M6, faintly aware that there was somewhere that he needed to be and that he hadn't factored in helping her to pack and threatening her former lecturer when he'd planned out the day that was already too crammed. The problem was that two none negotiable things had come along at once. Eleanor simply had to be picked up this Saturday because her lease expired at midnight and she had lectures until 5pm the day before, and he had to take Mark out this evening because tomorrow morning he would be getting on a flight to Australia. The result was a hectic dash from one end of the country to the other, and Eleanor's revelation had made matters even worse.

'Daddy, I'm sorry' they were speeding past Bristol when she finally spoke up, putting her ipad back in her bag and looking at him with big, beseeching eyes that normally turned him to jelly. Not this time though; he was still too angry. 'This is why I didn't tell you. I knew you'd be angry'  
'I'm not angry with you' he replied. He knew that he didn't sound convincing, but it was the truth. He would happily see Tom Lawler hung, drawn and quartered but for the first time since this whole pregnancy debacle blew up in their faces, he didn't blame Eleanor. She was young and impressionable and a much older man had taken advantage of her. If anything, he blamed himself. He was her father, it was his job to look after her, and even though she was an adult now, he still felt that he'd let her down by allowing her to fall into the clutches of a man like Tom Lawler. The fact that she hadn't felt able to tell him the truth about her predicament made him feel like he'd let her down even more. 'Neither is your mother'  
'You've told mum?' the colour drained from Eleanor's face and it dawned on him that in his fury when he'd stormed back to the flat and told Eleanor that she had five minutes to get in the car, he'd forgotten to mention that detail to her.  
'I called her earlier. I'm sorry; I needed a sounding board and your mother is the only one I've got for this kind of thing'  
'She's going to go mad' his daughter told him, suddenly close to tears.  
'She's less angry with you about this than she was about your display in the restaurant the other week' he replied wearily 'God help Lawler if she ever gets her hands on him, but she's not angry with you about this. Although we both wish that you'd told us the truth in the first place instead of spinning that ridiculous story about the boy in Thailand'  
'I'm sorry'  
'No, I'm sorry. I should have asked more questions because I knew what you were telling me didn't ring true. I was just shocked, so was your mum. This isn't exactly what either of us planned for you'  
'You were both perfectly clear about that' she replied miserably 'I know you both think I'm making a huge mistake – mum told me as much, and I know you agree with her, you're just too nice to say so – but I'm not. Tom was a mistake, but now that I'm in the situation that I'm in, I don't know what else to do. You do understand that, don't you?'  
'Yes' he sighed. He did understand, he'd always understood. Not getting pregnant would have been the ideal – on that he was sure that Eleanor would agree with them – but she was pregnant, and she was choosing to face her mistake instead of taking the easy way out and getting on with her life. He grudgingly respected her for that. 'And your mother does too, if she's honest. It's just that you're such a clever girl. Neither of us want you to waste your potential'  
'I'm staying at university aren't I'  
'Yes. And now that you're going to have child support from Tom, you'll be able to pay for childcare while you study' he replied. That was a huge weight off his mind, never mind Eleanor's. He had been dreading having to shell out for childcare while Eleanor went to University because even though he'd sold the boat and bought the house, he still didn't exactly have money to burn. The fact that Tom was paying a reasonably generous amount of child support took a weight off his shoulders.  
'Is he really going to pay?'  
'Unless he wants me to tell the University, his wife and the press then yes, he's going to pay' he replied, pulling into the drive and nearly driving headlong into Serena's Audi which was parked haphazardly on the drive. 'What the…?'  
'Mum?' Eleanor threw the car door open and flew into Serena's open arms before he'd even had a chance to digest the fact that his ex-wife had turned up on his doorstep. Not that he was sorry to see her. For one thing, he didn't enjoy being caught between them and now that they were making up it would make his life so much easier. 'I'm sorry, mum. About what I said' Eleanor told her through her tears. He was relieved; he just wished that she'd apologised weeks ago and saved them all the aggravation. 'I was a total bitch, wasn't I'  
'Maybe not a total bitch' Serena replied with a small laugh 'I can handle it. Your dad told me, about your lecturer'  
'I'm sorry'  
'You have nothing to be sorry for' Serena told her firmly, wiping the tears away from her eyes. 'I'm glad you're back'  
'I'm glad too. I hated York' Eleanor told her, leaning into her mother's shoulder as Serena put her arm around her and gently led her into the house. For a moment Edward went to follow her, then he realised; apparently the unpacking was down to him.

ooooo

'I'm really sorry, I've got to go out' he'd unpacked the car in record time, jumped in the shower and changed his shirt and he was ready to go again. He was due to pick Mark up in an hour and it was more than his life was worth to be late. He didn't want the last time he saw his son in however many months to be marred by a blazing row with Bethan. 'I promised I'd take Mark out tonight'  
'He leaves tomorrow, doesn't he?' to his surprise it was Eleanor who spoke up. It was the first time he'd ever known her digest and retain information that pertained to his other family and not to her. Normally she made a point of forgetting things that were important to Bethan and Mark, as if remembering her half-brother's birthday was somehow a betrayal of Serena, and he was grateful to her for remembering this at least.  
'Yeah' he grabbed the bag full of books, CDs, a state of the art Nintendo DS and a load of games that he'd cobbled together. Bethan would no doubt say he was spoiling Mark but he didn't care. He didn't know when he'd see him again, the least he wanted was to give him a decent send off. 'You'll be alright?'  
'Sure' Eleanor replied, sounding more cheerful than she'd sounded in weeks; genuinely cheerful, not the forced cheer that she'd greeted him with that morning. 'Would it be okay if mum stayed? We thought we might get a pizza and watch a film'  
'It's your house too; if you want your mum to stay that's fine with me' he replied. Privately he was relieved that Serena had stayed with Eleanor. He knew that she was technically an adult and more than capable of being left alone for the night, but he didn't like rushing out and leaving her in a strange house, especially not since he suspected she was a lot more fragile than she was letting on. 'I'll probably be back quite late but I've got my key. Have fun' he added, kissing Eleanor on the forehead before he dashed out of the door.

ooooo

When he arrived home at just gone midnight, the first thing that he noticed was that Serena's car was still parked on the drive. The second thing that he noticed as he turned the key in the lock and stepped inside was that somebody had done all of his washing up, and the third thing was that Serena was still sitting on the sofa, sipping a glass of wine.  
'Hello' he greeted her wearily, wondering what she was still doing here. 'Pleasant evening'  
'Yes, thanks. I hope you don't mind me staying; I didn't like to leave Eleanor. Not given today's dramas'  
'It's fine. I'm glad you were here' he replied, crashing down on the sofa beside her and pressing his hands over his eyes. He'd driven six hundred miles today and had been up for over twenty hours. He was exhausted and the worst part was, he had to be at work in eight hours. 'Did Eleanor clean the kitchen?' he added, surprised. His daughter had never been known to clean anything. He had started to seriously suspect that she was allergic to household cleaning products.  
'Don't be ridiculous' Serena replied with a gentle laugh 'Eleanor got tired at half nine and went to bed. I rinsed out your pans when I cleared up our pizza stuff'  
'Thanks' he replied, genuinely grateful. There was nothing worse than coming home to two-day-old pans encrusted with pasta sauce. He really needed to sort out a cleaner, even though he couldn't really afford one, because otherwise given his and Eleanor's shared dislike for washing up they could well end up living in a total hovel.  
'How did things go with Mark?'  
'Fine. He's so excited about going to Australia, it's difficult to be… I didn't want to say or do anything to spoil it for him. We spent a nice evening together watching the football and he thinks that I'm as thrilled that he's going as he is' he sighed. The truth was, he'd been crushed to see how excited his son was about the move to Australia. He'd sort of half hoped that Mark would say that he didn't want to go and Bethan would think better of it, but a couple of minutes with his son had told him that there was no hope. She'd done a good job of selling the idea of Australia to Mark – the good weather, the surfing, the beaches – and he hadn't the heart to rain on his son's parade and remind him there would still be school and he would see a lot more of his grandparents which wasn't necessarily a good thing. He hated the thought of his son going but if Mark was happy that was good enough for him.  
'That must be tough' she murmured, surprisingly sympathetically for a woman who, until extremely recently, would have been happier if Bethan and Mark lived on another planet.  
'It is what it is' he sighed wearily 'I haven't been the greatest father in the world, to either of them if we're being honest. It's probably no more than I deserve'  
'You're not so bad' she replied 'You've always been there for Eleanor, sometimes in spite of my best efforts, and she adores you. If I'm honest, I'm a bit jealous of your relationship with her'  
'Jealous? Seriously?' he gave a nervous little laugh, unable to quite believe what he was hearing. 'Why on earth would you be jealous?'  
'Because you and Eleanor was always a little team and I was never really a part of it; if you something it she took it as gospel and if I said it, I was just silly mum with my old fashioned ideas about homework, vegetables and not staying up on a school night. Sometimes I didn't want to be bad cop'  
'And I always wished that I could be more… I never wanted to be a disciplinarian, I just wished that she'd take me a bit more seriously. If I did try and suggest that she do her homework or eat her greens she'd just have laughed at me. I always envied your ability to be taken seriously'  
'Fine pair we make' she replied with a laugh. He noticed that she'd got a glass of wine from a bottle that hadn't been in the kitchen when he'd gone out. Clearly she'd ordered it with the pizzas, and he thought it a pretty sad state of affairs that she felt the need to provide her own alcohol.  
'I need a drink' he sighed, getting up and going through to the kitchen to open a bottle of wine for himself. He needed to change the subject because they had rules. One of which was that they never, ever spoke about themselves and their feelings; only about Eleanor's education, health and financial situation. This conversation was in grave danger of becoming the most serious conversation they'd had in ten years. Not that it particularly bothered him, but he knew how much it bothered her. She'd told him more than once; she couldn't handle being friends with him.  
'Help yourself to some of this' she told him, getting out a glass and pouring it for him 'It's actually half decent considering it came from the COOP'  
'Thanks' he replied, taking the glass gratefully and sipping it. 'Was Eleanor alright tonight?'  
'She was fine. We watched a film, we talked a bit but she wouldn't discuss Lawler…' even as she said the name her lip curled with distaste '… how the hell did that happen, Edward? How did we manage to bring her up so that she didn't realise how wrong it was'  
'We all make mistakes' he replied weakly. 'I think probably he charmed her and she got carried away. It happens'  
'It shouldn't happen. She should have run a mile' Serena sighed. Suddenly she looked close to tears and he realised that she was where he had been eight hours ago – sickened by the thought of somebody not much younger than him laying a finger on their daughter, and by the fact that Eleanor had been naïve enough to let it happen. 'And I'm sorry about what I said. About you being a bad influence. It was unfair'  
'It's fine. I can handle it' he replied with a small smile, sitting back down on the sofa with a thud.  
'I should go' she peered into her now empty glass, then back at the bottle, clearly contemplating a refill 'I'll have to call a cab. I've had far too much to drink. Is it alright if I leave the car here and pick it up tomorrow?'  
'Sure' he shrugged 'you're welcome to stay here if you like. It's really late and a cab will cost a fortune. The sofa bed's really quite comfortable'  
'What do you think Eleanor will say if she comes down in the morning and I'm still here?' Serena pointed out with a laugh.  
'Plenty probably but she's in no position to comment on anybody else' he told her with a smile 'Go on, pour yourself another, I'll find you a toothbrush'


	9. Chapter 9

3am and he still hadn't found the toothbrush, or folded out the sofa bed, or made any move towards sleep despite the fact that they both had work in the morning. They were on their second bottle of wine and for the first time in years they were talking. Really talking. Not about Eleanor and her antics, or about work, or any of the designated "safe" subjects. They were talking about themselves. About the fun that they'd had together in the early days, in Boston, before they'd come back to the UK and real life had bitten them hard with long shifts, a mortgage and an unplanned pregnancy to contend with. They talked without arguing which was a massive step. He didn't aggravate her by rewriting history to make himself into the hero of every story and she didn't deride him at every turn for having been young, free-spirited and all too frequently drunk. The more they drank the closer they sailed to the un-discussible; their marriage and subsequent unpleasant divorce. Things that they never spoke of because they'd both behaved badly and the bad feeling still lingered, especially for her. And then, without warning, after at least a glass more wine than was advisable for a work night, she did it: she asked the question that had been playing on her mind for years:

'Why did you do it, Edward?'

'Do what?' he asked slowly, as if he didn't know what she was talking about. It was a conversation that he absolutely didn't want to have but as soon as she asked the question, he knew that he wasn't going to be able to avoid answering. The problem was that he was too drunk and too tired to concoct a half decent excuse for his behaviour, and he didn't want to tell her the truth because that would only hurt her more.

'Marry Bethan. I mean, I sort of understand the one-night-stand bit – these things happen, and she's not unattractive – but marrying her? Really, Edward, the woman's a total bitch' she told him, alcohol loosening her inhibitions and allowing her to say what she really thought.

'You threw me out' he pointed out wearily, relieved that she was more interested in why he'd married Bethan than why he'd cheated on her in the first place because it was the explanation for the infidelity that was likely to hurt her. 'She was pregnant. It seemed like the right thing to do'

'So you married her out of duty?'

'There are worse reasons' he replied, although he couldn't think of many. The truth was, he'd married Bethan because even in the early days she'd shown signs of being totally unreasonable and he'd known that the only way to secure a place in his son's life was to get his name on the birth certificate, and the easiest way of doing that was to put a ring on her finger.

'Like what?'

'Well Mindy needed a visa' he replied with a grin and Serena burst out laughing. He knew that Eleanor and Serena privately referred to Mindy as the "internet bride", which was untrue, but the threat of deportation when her visa ran out had certainly expedited their relationship. He'd never told them as much because they would have found it hysterical, as proven by the tears of mirth in Serena's eyes.

'Oh Edward, you are ridiculous sometimes' she told him affectionately 'You married her for a visa? Is that true?'

'They were going to deport her and I loved her. It's not quite as bad as it sounds'

'She made off with all your money after eighteen months. It's probably worse' she replied, and he knew that she had a point. The unpleasant truth was, he suspected that Mindy had never been in love with him, and had married him with one eye on the visa and the divorce settlement. He didn't tell Serena that much because it was a raw nerve and he didn't want her rubbing salt in the wound. 'If Bethan hadn't gotten pregnant then would you have married her?' she added, changing the subject, which was good, but changing it back to Bethan, which was bad.

'Probably not'

'Would you have come back to me?'

'You chucked me out' he pointed out. Leaving had hardly been his choice. Serena had found out about his ill-advised night with Bethan – not even a night, thirty minutes in a linen cupboard really – and she'd packed his bags for him. She'd never been a great one for second chances.

'I'd probably have gotten over it eventually' she replied, which was news to him, and something that he wished she'd shared with him ten years ago. If he'd thought that there was even an outside chance of getting Serena back then he wouldn't have married Bethan; he'd have bent over backwards to win his wife back. 'It might have helped if I understood why you'd done it'

'Done what?' he asked slowly, realising too late that they were back where he didn't want to be, discussing what had driven him into a linen closet with the hospital bike in the first place.

'Slept with Bethan. I mean we were happy, as far as I know you were getting what you needed a home – unless you have some strange fetish that I don't know about, we had a beautiful daughter. Why would you jeopardise that?'

'It was a mistake' he replied, which was the truth, but not the whole truth. It wouldn't be enough to satisfy her, he knew that, but he still tried because he didn't want to hurt her. He'd hurt her enough already.

'Was she the only one?'

'Yes' he replied. That much was true, at least. Bethan had been his first mistake but that had been enough to bring his life crashing down around him.

'Did she give you something that I didn't?'

'No'

'Well then, why? Did I do something'

'No' he replied again, but he said it too quickly; so quickly that it sounded insincere and her eyebrows shot skywards. Not for the first time in his life he wished that he could go back in time a couple of hours and not start drinking. If he wasn't drunk then he'd never have gotten into this conversation, and if he hadn't allowed himself to get embroiled in it then he wouldn't be about to say something that would ruin their new, tentative truce.

'I did. What did I do, Edward?'

'Nothing. I need a cigarette' he got up, grabbed his cigarettes and ignored the look she gave him as he crossed the room, opened a window and leaned out of it to smoke. Anything to avoid having to look her in the eye and lie to her again.

'I hope you're not going to do that around the baby or Eleanor'

'I'm not completely stupid' he replied, taking a long drag and breathing out slowly. In the silence he could almost hear the cogs turning in her head as she cast her mind back, frantically tried to remember anything that had happened nearly twelve years ago that might have caused her husband to sleep with another woman. The silence seemed to last forever, but eventually he turned back to look at her and watched as the penny dropped and she recoiled slightly.

'You knew, didn't you?'

'Knew what?' he asked wearily, stalling for time in the vain hope that Eleanor would wake up, or the phone would ring, or something else would happen to interrupt them.

'Edward…' a warning note in her voice, telling him not to screw with her. He knew that there was no point in lying. She'd worked out that he knew what she'd done, what she didn't know what how he'd found out.

'I heard you on the phone to your mother' he sighed, sinking down onto the sofa and lowering his head into his hands wearily 'I wasn't trying to listen – I'd been reading Eleanor a story and you were in the bedroom. I just overheard and…'

'You heard me telling her about the abortion?' she surmised, curling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. Suddenly she looked very small and very vulnerable and he hated himself for putting her in that position.

'Yeah. I heard, and I was so angry. I wanted to hurt you so I…'

'Succeeded by going after Bethan. Yeah, Edward, I can work the rest out. Why didn't you talk to me?'

'There didn't seem like a lot to say on the matter. You'd had an abortion, you didn't want me to know and even if I had confronted you, what would have been the point? The deed was done, it's not like it would change anything'

'If you'd asked me then I could have explained; maybe then you wouldn't have wanted to hurt me by going after Bethan'

'If I had, what would you have said?'

'It's not a decision that I took lightly. You know how bad my pregnancy was with Eleanor. Seven months in and out of hospital with dehydration and high blood pressure and then she was born six weeks early and had to go into an incubator. It was horrendous and I couldn't go through that again'

'It might have been different. Just because you had a terrible time with Eleanor…'

'It wasn't different, Edward. Before the termination I spent ten days unable to keep anything down. You remember; you thought I had gastroenteritis'

'Ah yes' he sighed. He'd known ever since he'd heard her on the phone to her mother that her "gastroenteritis" had been a repeat performance of the virulent morning sickness that she'd suffered when she was pregnant with Eleanor. What he hadn't realised was that it had been reason enough for her to get rid of the baby. 'It might have passed'

'Or it might not have. And even if it had, did we really want a second child? We barely had time for the one that we had. Would it really have been fair on her to bring a second child into the family when we spent so much time at work that she was constantly fighting for our attention'

'She had my attention' he pointed out. 'And to be honest, it wasn't so much that you had the abortion. It was that you didn't trust me enough to tell me about it. Did you really think I'd make you have a baby that you didn't want? Or go through with a pregnancy that was going to make you ill for months?'

'No, I didn't. That's exactly the point, Edward. I knew you'd support me, so the outcome was going to be the same either way. If I'd told you then we'd both have had to live with my decision'

'I'd have sooner that than you go behind my back' he told her gently, putting his arm around her shoulders and giving her a squeeze 'I'm sorry'

'You have nothing to be sorry for'

'Sure I do. The mature thing to do would have been to talk to you instead of storming off and sleeping with the first woman that made herself available. If I'd done that then we probably wouldn't be divorced'

'We both made mistakes, Edward' she told him wearily, resting her head against his shoulder and snuggling against him. It was the closest that they'd been in over ten years and he liked it. She fitted perfectly in his arms in a way that neither Bethan nor Mindy had and the familiar smell of perfume, fruity shampoo and red wine instantly took him back ten or fifteen years, to a time before the misunderstandings and the affairs and the divorce; back to a time when they were happy.


	10. Chapter 10

'Oh my god' Eleanor exclaimed. She was standing on the stairs, dressed in a dressing gown with her hair wrapped up in a towel, and she had an expression of amusement on her face. For a moment he wondered why, then he realised that he was lying on the sofa with his ex-wife – her mother – in his arms. The only saving grace was that they were both fully clothed. 'How much did you two drink last night?'  
'Too much' he replied, scratching his head wearily. After their talk they had sat in silence for a long time, and eventually they must have dozed off because here they were, being embarrassingly interrupted by their teenaged daughter. Worse still, they were both over two hours late for work, and no doubt when Serena woke up she was going to be furious. Somehow he was sure it was going to end up being his fault.  
'Clearly' his daughter replied with a smirk on her face. She went into the kitchen and started making breakfast. Black coffee, dry toast and a can of Red Bull for him, peppermint tea and a banana for her mother. Hangover food. He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about his daughter instantly knowing what they both needed to feel better after a heavy night. 'Do you want to wake her up or shall I?' she added, nodding to Serena who had always been a heavy sleeper and was still passed out on the sofa.  
'I'll do it' he sighed tersely. If Serena was going to go ballistic with anybody, better that it was him. He was used to being on the receiving end of her. 'Serena, wake up. It's time to go to work' he added, standing well out of her reach. He wasn't stupid; if she could reach him then she could throttle him for the position that he'd allowed her to get into.  
'Mmm…' she mumbled, opening her eyes and squinting at him. '… Where am I?'  
'You're at my house, Serena. You stayed on the sofa last night' he told her.  
'With dad' Ellie chipped in helpfully. He turned and shot her a warning look. Serena was going to take this badly enough without Eleanor dining out on it for years.  
'Ah…' Serena sighed and ran her fingers through her hair as she looked around and tried to get her bearings. Then she looked down and visibly relaxed when she saw that she was still fully clothed. It was still bad, but it could have been so much worse.  
'I made you some tea' Eleanor handed her the mug of peppermint tea and Serena sipped it tentatively. 'What went on last night? Last time I looked, you two could hardly stand the sight of each other'  
'Don't push your luck' Serena advised wearily 'What time is it?'  
'We're two hours late, I've already texted Ric and Michael' he replied, cutting straight to the chase. There was no point pussy footing around and letting her work out that they were very late for work; better to tell her that it was dealt with before she had the chance to fly off the handle.  
'You didn't tell them that we…'  
'Give me some credit; I told them we had to take Eleanor to the doctor. And no, I didn't tell them why' he added as both women turned to glare at him. Their daughter's predicament wasn't common knowledge around the hospital and if it was going to be announced, he didn't want to be the person doing it.  
'Good. Nobody else needs to know about this'  
'I quite agree' he replied. The truth was he didn't care if word went round that he and Serena were building bridges – it was no skin off his nose, at worst Ric would probably want to shake his hand for taming the dragon – but he knew how fiercely Serena guarded her privacy. He'd already undermined that by turning up. He didn't want to make it even worse for her.  
'What is "this"?' Eleanor enquired, pulling up a chair and pouring herself a bowl of Cornflakes, clearly enjoying herself immensely. 'You two didn't…' she pulled a face but they both knew exactly what she was talking about. He watched Serena bristle and this time he didn't hang around for Eleanor to make matters worse and start another blazing row when the other one had only just been resolved.  
'No, we didn't. We were both exhausted – probably thanks to the sleepless nights you've been causing us lately. We were talking and we fell asleep. That's all'  
'You forgot to mention the two and a half bottles of wine'  
'We're more than entitled to a drink'  
'And a smoke?' Eleanor held up the half empty packet of cigarettes and the lighter that he'd abandoned on the windowsill, smirking until he snatched it off her, faintly aware that Serena looked even more displeased about it in the cold light of day than she had when she was drunk the night before. Or perhaps he was now sober enough to appreciate the full extent of her disapproval. Either way he resented it.  
'Why don't you take your cereal and go and watch You Tube videos or something?' he suggested, all his grand statements about this being her home too going out of the window. What he really wanted was to send her to her room so that he could get some peace and quiet but she was an adult now – technically at least – and it wasn't going to work.  
'I'm fine here'  
'Well in that case, Eleanor, why don't we discuss the part time jobs that you're going to apply for' it was Serena who piped up, and to his relief that was enough to make Eleanor decide that actually, You Tube videos in her bedroom wasn't such a bad idea after all. She was on her feet with her bowl and heading for the stairs before Serena even finished the sentence.  
'Well played' he grinned, sipping his coffee. He was starting to feel human enough to think about work, which was good since Serena was never going to let him get away with calling sick.  
'Years of practice' she replied with a shrug 'I suspect you've never seen her at her most aggravating before' she added. She was probably right. When Eleanor came to him her behaviour was always fine – so long as he kept her well away from whichever wife he was married to and her half brother – but that was because until now he'd never had to discipline her. He didn't get her until Saturday lunchtime so the homework had always been done under Serena's watchful eye, and all he ever had to worry about was making sure that she had a good time and wanted to come again. For the first time he realised just what a raw deal Serena had had over the years, but he knew that she wouldn't have had it any other way. She liked being in control too much.  
'No, probably not' he agreed wearily 'Do you want to share a cab to work? I don't know about you but I don't think I'm in a fit state to drive'  
'Are you in a fit state to treat patients then?'  
'I envisage a day of rearranging paperclips for both of us' he shrugged. In his case he had to write a review of the first three months of the Primary Defense programme. For Serena there was always paperwork to do.  
'Fine. Yes, we can share a cab. But I'm going to have to go home and change first; I can hardly turn up in jeans'  
'Not a problem' he replied. He toyed with suggesting that she go and ask if she could borrow something of Eleanor's but he thought better of it; anything that their daughter owned was either low cut or too short, and all of it was too cheap and nasty for Serena to even consider it. 'We'll go past yours and you can run in and get changed. Just give me five minutes to jump in the shower and I'll be with you'

ooooo

As he turned the key in the lock his heart immediately sank. It had been a long day, not helped by a massive car accident that had resulted in an eight-hour stint in theatre and the fact that he'd had barely any sleep in the last forty eight hours, and now he was home he found his house overrun with teenagers. He had been hoping to relax with a beer and Sky Sport for an hour but clearly that wasn't going to happen; the TV had been tuned to some god-awful music channel and the beers were long gone. The only saving grace he could find was that Eleanor was sober, even if her friends weren't.  
'Eleanor, what's going on?' he asked wearily, cornering her in the kitchen. Looking around he realised that it wasn't quite as bad as first feared. There were only a dozen kids and they weren't that drunk. Between them they'd polished off about twenty bottles of beer, which was nothing really. The biggest problem was that he was knackered and didn't want any houseguests getting under his feet.  
'I said the guys could come over' she replied cheerfully 'You don't mind do you? You said I could have people over whenever I liked'  
'I meant…' he trailed off, pinching the bridge of his nose wearily, cursing himself for not being clearer. When he'd said it was her house to invite people to as she pleased, what he'd meant was her mother, not a bunch of bratty kids who wanted to drink his alcohol and leave take away cartons all over his lounge. '… I'm sorry, Ellie, I've had a hell of a day. I'm going to bed. Can you lot try and keep it down, please?'  
'Sure' she nodded, reaching out and turning down the volume on the television from deafening to merely antisocial. It was small help to him; there was no way he'd get a wink of sleep until this lot went home.  
'Thanks' he sighed. In the morning, once he'd taken a strong painkiller and slept off his thumping headache he would talk to her. He needed to lay down some ground rules and make sure that this didn't happen again. For today he could think of nothing to do except go to bed and let her get on with it.

ooooo

He was halfway up the stairs when the doorbell stopped him in his tracks and he turned around, fearing that another load of kids were descending on him. He still hadn't quite forgotten about the party that Eleanor had posted on Facebook, succeeding in getting Serena's house trashed in the process. No matter how clear the memory was in his mind – and in Serena's, he suspected – he feared that Eleanor hadn't quite learned her lesson.  
'Are you expecting more people?' he asked his daughter wearily, raising his voice to be heard over the music.  
'Don't think so' she replied, reaching for a beer, then stopping when he glared at her.  
'Don't even think about it, Eleanor. You're pregnant, you don't drink' he told her, picking his way through teenaged bodies, empty beer bottles and take away wrappers to answer the door.  
'Having fun?' Serena greeted him with a grin. For a moment he was bemused, then he remembered, she'd left her car on the drive. She'd said something to him as he'd left the hospital about coming by to collect it later, but at that point his mind had already been on the cold beer that was waiting for him at home.  
'What do you think?' he replied wearily 'I did tell her she could invite who she liked over'  
'Yeah, but you didn't mean it' she pointed out with a laugh 'And Eleanor will take advantage if you let her'  
'Yeah, I'm beginning to see that' he replied, surprised when Serena sidestepped him, walked straight over to the TV and unplugged it.  
'Mum!' Eleanor looked incensed and looked to him to do something, but he didn't. Serena was doing him a massive favour and all he was interested in was going to bed. 'Dad?!'  
'Come on you lot' Serena called, barely raising her voice, but then she didn't need to. She knew every one of the kids in the room and more to the point, they knew her; they'd seen her lose her rag and they knew that they didn't like it. She commanded a level of respect that he could only dream of – except from their daughter who didn't really respect either of them – and not for the first time he reflected on just how impressive his ex-wife could be. 'Time to go home'  
'Thanks' he sighed, sinking down on the sofa as the kids dispersed and within minutes his house was quiet again. His daughter was giving him thunderous looks, despite the fact that he'd done nothing except fail to stand up for her, but he didn't care.  
'No problem' she replied with a grin 'You'll learn to deal with it. You just need to lay down some ground rules and possibly be prepared to make yourself unpopular'  
'You think I'm popular now?' he pointed out, unable to resist a smile as Eleanor stormed up the stairs.  
'Nope' Serena replied, and then: 'Eleanor Campbell, stop right there'  
'What?'  
'Firstly, you can put that beer back and forget about it for the next nine months. Secondly, don't think you're going anywhere until you've tidied up this mess and thirdly, ask before you throw a party. You know the rules'  
'But this is dad's house. He said…'  
'Edward?' Serena gave him a look that urged him to stand up to their daughter for once in his life, and it occurred to him that this was how it should always have been; he and Serena working together to teach Eleanor how to behave, instead of letting their daughter constantly divide and conquer them.  
'I don't mind you having one or two friends over, quietly, in your room. I do draw the line at ransacking the living room, drinking beer and making a bloody racket when you know perfectly well that I've been at work for the last twelve hours' he told her. He contemplated apologising – normally he did after laying down the law, almost like a reflex – but he held it in.  
'Sorry' she mumbled and stared at the ground.  
'Get on with it then' Serena raised an eyebrow and to his surprise Eleanor trudged into the kitchen, fetched a bin bag and started to clear up the mess. 'I'll be off then'  
'Thanks Serena' he told her, and he meant it. He was increasingly realising that he didn't know how to deal with Eleanor and it had been less than twenty-four hours. He was grateful to his ex-wife for her intervention because she'd spared him from being ridden roughshod over, probably repeatedly. Not that their daughter wouldn't push her luck again, but at least now he was getting an idea of how best to deal with it.  
'No problem. She'd try the patience of a saint sometimes' Serena replied, smirking slightly as Eleanor threw the bag of rubbish in the bin, flounced upstairs and slammed her bedroom door.  
'Well, she's going to have to grow up soon' he pointed out 'There'll be no parties with a baby in tow'  
'Yeah, until she manages to palm babysitting duties off on granddad and goes back to having fun'  
'That's not going to happen'  
'We'll see' she replied with a small, knowing, smile 'There is a reason I didn't want her living with me. I wasn't just being spiteful you know'  
'I know' he sighed 'Like you say; she'll only take advantage if I let her'  
'Oh she'll probably try it on even if you don't. But at least you won't feel like a total doormat' she told him 'Have a good evening, Edward'  
'Thanks, you too' he replied, watching as Serena left, wishing that he could go with her.


	11. Chapter 11

'Eleanor, will you get a move on! We're going to be late!' he bellowed up the stairs, glancing anxiously at his watch. The maternity department at St James' were doing them a massive favour by fitting them in so early in the morning so that he and Serena didn't both have to negotiate time off work at the same time. It had to be St James' because Serena was adamant that news of Eleanor's predicament needed to be contained for as long as possible, and was likely to be kept quieter if there wasn't a danger of Marie-Claire seeing them coming out of the maternity unit and publishing a hospital wide memo. The downside of the arrangement meant that he was left with the unenviable task of getting a teenager up and out of the house at 6am, to go somewhere that she didn't want to go in the first place.  
'I can't find my mascara' she called back. She sounded anxious and unhappy, which would normally have made him go easy on her, but today he was too stressed. He was supposed to be presenting to the board about the Primary Defense scheme in the hope of extending his contract in three hours time, and he didn't have time to try and cram Eleanor's scan into his day. He was only going at all because Serena had left him little choice; when he'd tried to wriggle off the hook and suggest that medical appointments were more her bag than his, she'd snapped that they were in it together or not at all. Apparently after uprooting his whole life to accommodate their daughter, he still wasn't quite pulling his weight. When he'd pointed out that this morning was the worst possible time for him to have to be anywhere other than finishing off an all-nighter with Ric, she'd asked whether he'd like to pay for an appointment at a more convenient time at a private hospital. That had convinced him; he'd pulled his all-nighter at the hospital, headed home at 5am to take a quick shower and drive Eleanor into the hospital. He was exhausted and he didn't have time for his daughter's antics. Not when if he missed or fouled up this presentation he could well lose his job, and therefore the means of paying the mortgage.  
'It's not your eyes they're going to be interested in. I haven't got time for this and if we're late then you know your mother is going to blame me. Now get in the bloody car' he retorted, storming up the stairs and banging on the bathroom door 'I know it's early. Believe me, in an ideal world I'd be in bed too, but it's not an ideal world and we've got somewhere to be'  
'Can't we reschedule for later'  
'No, we can't. They're doing us a favour as it is, now move' he snapped, relieved when she threw open the bathroom door and pushed past him, flouncing down the stairs. He couldn't see quite how she had the nerve to blame him for any of this, under the circumstances, but he also didn't have the energy to deal with it. He needed to get in and out and back to the hospital by 8.30 and that didn't leave him time for a blazing row with a hormonally charged teenager.

ooooo

'You're late' Serena snapped as they staggered into the maternity unit forty minutes later. The other downside of St James' was that it was right on the other side of town from his house whereas City was just down the road. It was almost as if she'd intended it to be as inconvenient as possible, but he knew that it was less about his convenience than it was about discretion.  
'I'm doing my best' he replied miserably as Eleanor threw herself down on one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs and glowered at them. 'I haven't slept and she seems to have gotten out of bed on the wrong side this morning. Give me a break, please'  
'Well it's fine. They're running late. How did the preparation for the presentation go? I'm looking forward to hearing it' she told him with a smirk and his heart sank. They might have been getting on better than they had for years on a personal level but on a professional level she still didn't much like working with him, or have much faith in Primary Defense. If the presentation went badly then she'd be the first person to pull the plug on him, so it wasn't great news that she was going to be present.  
'I'm presenting to you?' he asked weakly.  
'Myself and a few others, yes' she replied, obviously enjoying herself immensely and me.  
'Marvelous' he sighed, heading straight for the coffee machine to get himself a cup of some grey sludge that might have been tea, coffee, soup or a mixture of the three. 'Would you like one?'  
'Must be desperate times if you're considering consuming that' she replied with a grin.  
'I told you, I haven't slept. Did they say how late they're running? I have to be back at the hospital by half eight at the latest'  
'It's fine, Edward. They won't start without you. Or me, for that matter' she reassured him, glancing up as a nurse came and called Eleanor's name 'Here we go; it's only five minutes. You'll be back at the hospital in plenty of time'

ooooo

They sat opposite each other, either side of the trolley where Eleanor lay. She still seemed to be sulking which Serena thought was a bit rich since she was the reason why they'd all dragged themselves here at the crack of dawn, but now wasn't the time to tackle her on the attitude problem. Instead she took her daughter's hand and squeezed it tightly. Today was the day when it became real which was another reason why there were all rattled. It was bad luck that it was also the day of Edward's big presentation, but she couldn't help that. She'd had to call in several favours just to get this appointment and there was no flexibility with the dates.  
'You must be Eleanor' the midwife greeted her with a friendly smile, designed to put her at her ease. 'I'm Marie, I'm going to be looking after you today'  
'Hello' Ellie mumbled. She suddenly looked very young and very scared and Serena found herself swallowing back a lump in her throat, thinking not for the first time that her daughter was ten years too young for all of this; that if she was any kind of mother, she'd have found some way to nip this in the bud or to stop it from happening in the first place.  
'I think what we'll do first is have a quick look at you and do the scan. Then once we've done that we'll have a chat. Is that alright?'  
'Fine' Eleanor replied, glancing to her mother as she spoke, as if silently asking permission. Serena managed a reassuring smile. If this was going to happen – and apparently it was – then Eleanor was going to have to learn pretty quickly that she couldn't defer to her parents any more.  
'Right then, lets have a look. This might be a little cold' Marie squeezed some gel onto Eleanor's stomach and took the probe, moving it slowly, gently around until a grainy picture appeared on the screen. As it did Serena felt her heart leap to her chest and she glanced up at Edward for confirmation that she was seeing what she thought she was. As she did he looked up at her, and she knew that he'd seen it too. Of course he had. He'd spent even longer working in maternity than she had as a Junior Doctor; they were both more than capable of interpreting a twelve-week ultrasound, even when it didn't show what they were expecting it to.  
'Mum?' Eleanor asked, panicked because she knew her parents well enough to know when something was wrong, and even if she hadn't, it didn't take a genius to work it out when Edward had gone completely ashen. 'What is it. What's wrong'  
'Nothing' she reassured her, squeezing her hand, glancing up at Marie for confirmation.  
'Everything looks very healthy, Eleanor. What is a bit of a surprise is that there are two heartbeats' the nurse told her daughter gently.  
'Two heartbeats?' Eleanor looked confused, as if she couldn't grasp what she was being told.  
'Twins' Edward supplied wearily.  
'Are there any in the family?'  
'Not on my side' Serena replied 'Edward?'  
'Not to my knowledge' he sighed, sitting back in his chair and exhaling hard. He looked like he'd had the stuffing knocked out of him and she knew exactly how he felt.  
'Ellie, why don't your mum and dad step outside for a minute and we can have a chat? Would that be alright?' the midwife asked gently, putting the ultrasound probe back on the machine. Eleanor looked close to tears but she nodded and Serena stood up, relieved because the midwife had read the situation correctly; she and Edward needed to regroup because this was one shock that neither of them had even paused to consider. By the time she'd hooked her handbag over her shoulder Edward was already out of the room, moving faster than she'd ever seen him move. She couldn't blame him because right now she wanted this ride to stop so that she could get off.


	12. Chapter 12

'Shit' he punched the vending machine hard, as if it had personally offended him. 'Shit, shit, shit'

'Edward' Serena said his name gently, calmly, and stood behind him, waiting for him to pull himself together. For a moment he froze and then he gave the vending machine one last kick for good measure and turned to face her.

'Shit Serena' he clawed at his hair irately 'Twins? Really?'

'I saw the same as you did' she replied wearily, sitting down hard on one of the plastic chair and lowering her head to her hands. 'It seemed pretty clear from where I was sitting. There were two heartbeats'

'Jesus' he groaned, sinking into the chair beside her 'I thought one grandchild was a disaster, never mind two'

'Is two really that much worse than one?' she asked. Financially yes, it was worse, and she realised that his mind had gone straight to the money because providing for his family was what he'd always been about in his own, backwards and slightly haphazard way. From where she was sitting it was no worse because it didn't make her daughter's future any more ruined than it already was, and it didn't change anything about her fling with Lawler.

'I can't afford it, Serena. I got £400 grand from the boat and that's more or less gone with the house and paying off Mindy. Lawler's money is going to be a drop in the ocean and I could lose my job today. I can't afford to bankroll two grandchildren'

'You're not going to lose your job' she told him wearily. 'I'm in charge of HR remember; even if Primary Defense goes south, I'll find something for you to do'

'Great, so the deficit isn't going to get any bigger' he didn't sound particularly comforted by her reassurance 'It's still massive. Bethan is screwing me for a fortune and I'm going to have to pay for Eleanor's tuition and two lots of childcare. It just doesn't add up'

'Edward, they're my grandchildren too. I might not want them living with me but that doesn't mean I'm going to see you destitute while I buy handbags and expensive holidays. I have more than enough money to see that paying for this isn't a problem'

'I should be able to afford to support her'

'And she shouldn't have gotten pregnant. We're not living in an ideal world here, Edward. It's a shock but now I think we're going to have to make the best of it. It's a bit late for us to do anything else'

'Do you really think she'll cope with two babies?'

'Do you think she'll cope with one' she countered with a slightly bitter laugh 'You and I are going to be picking up the slack here, Edward. That much has been certain since the day she dropped her bombshell. This just means that there is going to be that much more slack'

'Rope to hang ourselves more like' he said miserably 'You were right, Serena. This is insanity. I should have driven her straight to the clinic and…'

'You'd never have forgiven yourself and neither would she. You did the right thing, Edward, and you know I wouldn't tell you that unless I believed it' she reached out and squeezed his arm 'None of this is your fault and all we can do now is support Eleanor as best we can. Right now that means you going back to City and sorting out that presentation. I can stay here with Eleanor while they finish up but right now I think you need to not be around her'

'You're right' he nodded numbly. She didn't know what kind of job he was going to make of the presentation in his current state and she decided she'd text Ric and tell him to keep an eye on Edward and maybe pare down the amount of the presentation that Edward was responsible for. That was the beauty of Ric; she could ask it of him and he'd never ask what had gotten Edward so rattled. He'd just do as she asked and trust that they'd tell him if he ever needed to know. 'Thanks Serena'

'Don't thank me, Edward. This is just as much my problem as it is yours' on impulse she gave him a hug because he looked like he needed it. 'Go on; I'll see you at the presentation'

ooooo

By the time she reached her office the pounding had ceased to be merely a headache. It was developing into a full-blown migraine, and if it wasn't for Edward's bloody presentation she would have taken the rest of the day off and taken to her bed. She had prepared herself for a challenging morning at St James' with Eleanor – at the very least, she still hadn't quite accepted that the pregnancy wasn't just somebody, probably Edward, having a joke at her expense – but after the scan there would be no getting away from the fact that she was getting a grandchild. She'd thought that a harsh reality check would be the worst of it, but after the bombshell in the scan it had been even harder than she'd feared. By the time she'd returned to Eleanor's side after dispatching Edward to get his head together before his presentation and tipping Ric off about the state he was in, her daughter was in tears. She'd spent the next hour trying to calm down a mildly hysterical teenager, which was a thankless, exhausting task at the best of times. In the end she'd palmed Eleanor off on her mother, after warning her daughter that under no circumstances was she to tell her grandmother about the pregnancy – her mother's impending great-grandmother status was something that she hadn't quite found the words or the strength to impart just yet – and she'd headed to the hospital. The result was that she felt like a lousy mother for ditching her daughter, a lousy daughter for lying to her mother and a lousy manager for turning up to work late when she wouldn't expect it from anybody on her Firm. She hadn't felt quite this conflicted in years and she didn't like it one bit. The only saving grace was that when Edward poked his head around the door he looked even worse than she felt.

'Is she alright?' he asked, loitering awkwardly in the doorway because they should both have been making their way to the boardroom instead of discussing their personal lives on hospital time.

'She will be. She's just shocked'

'What are we going to do, 'Re?' he asked, startling her by using the pet name that she hadn't heard for over a decade. He seemed to do it without particularly thinking about it, or even noticing, and he didn't seem all that aware that it was mildly inappropriate.

'Right now, we're going to go to your presentation' she told him primly, responding to his over familiarity by taking a step back and being entirely businesslike 'This isn't the time or the place to talk about Eleanor'

'Agreed' he sighed.

'Come on then, Edward. Lets get this over with' she strutted out of the office and headed for the boardroom, wishing that she'd had the time to dose herself up on painkillers before leaving the office, because his unexpected over familiarity had done nothing to ease her already aching head.

ooooo

'Is everything alright?' Ric asked him. They were sitting in Serena's office, sipping wine out of a couple of mugs that he'd liberated from the staff kitchen, toasting their success. Primary Defense had been extended for a twelve-month trial, which meant that he was in employment for the foreseeable future, and that was thanks in no small part to Serena's intervention. Between her and Ric, the presentation had gone swimmingly, largely because Ric had fielded every question and Serena had charmed the other board members so that when she said she thought it should be rolled out not a single person disagreed with her. He suspected that her support for the programme had more to do with him than it did to do with a sudden belief in Primary Defense – he knew she still had her reservations, they'd debated it over a sandwich and a coffee on more than one occasion when he was squatting in their office and neither of them was in the mood to discuss Eleanor. He was grateful to her because he really couldn't afford to lose his job. Not now, and certainly not after this morning's bombshell. What confused him was why she'd done it because she'd made no secret of her desire to see the back of him in a professional context and he knew that he'd pissed her off with his earlier slip of the tongue. He suspected that if she asked him she'd claim she'd done it for the sake of Eleanor – so that he could still pay the mortgage – but he didn't think that was strictly true. If she wanted to secure his income then she could simply have called in a favour from a friend had got him a job at any one of a number of local hospitals because everybody needed anesthetists. Instead she'd bent over backwards to keep him on the staff at her own hospital, working on a project that she didn't have much belief in. He didn't understand it, but he knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth and ask her.

'Fine' he replied morosely because he might have kept his job but he still had twin grandchildren on the way that somehow he knew he'd end up paying for, and an ex-wife who never ceased to confuse him.

'Only you don't look like a man who's just secured himself a twelve month contract. You look like a man who had the winning lottery ticket and put it through the shredder' Ric added astutely. 'Serena's not been herself today either. Has something happened? With Eleanor?'

'Eleanor's fine'

'I'm glad to hear it. But just because they're fine doesn't mean they're not giving you sleepless nights. Believe me; I've got five ex-wives, nine kids and a grandson. I know how stressful they can be'

'Has Serena said anything to you?' he asked. The last thing he wanted was to tell Ric something which would get back to Serena and result in her going ballistic with him for discussing their personal business with a colleague. On the other hand, Ric wasn't just a colleague, he was a good friend – to both of them – and he had a point; if anybody understood just how much aggravation a teenager could cause it would be Ric.

'Not in so many words, but she's been out of sorts for weeks – so have you for that matter – and today she specifically asked me to cover your back. That's not like her at all'

'She asked you to cover my back?' he asked, unsure whether to be angry or grateful. On balance he was so pleased that the presentation was over and nobody was unemployed that he didn't care what Serena had or hadn't asked Ric to do.

'Is this something to do with Eleanor dropping out of University? That must have been a blow'

'She didn't drop out, she transferred' he sighed 'And yes, it is'

'If you tell me I promise you it'll go no further'

'Serena doesn't want the news broadcasting'

'Which is why I said talk to me, rather than Marie-Claire. Have you ever known me gossip?'

'No' he sighed, deciding that he might as well confide in Ric because right now what he needed was a friend. 'Eleanor is pregnant'

'Ah' Ric sighed, a small smile playing on his lips. 'I wondered whether that might be it. When did she tell you?'

'Nine weeks ago'

'Which is the reason for the hasty house purchase and the transfer to Holby, I presume'

'Yes'

'So, where are you at the moment? Still wanting to rip the man that laid a finger on her limb from limb, or have you moved onto wondering how the hell you're going to bankroll a grandchild when you can barely make ends meet already?'

'How did you…?' he was stunned. He knew that Ric was a perceptive, wise man – the Juniors didn't call him Yoda for nothing – but he was amazed by just how accurately the man seemed to read his mind.

'My daughter Jess fell pregnant by an older man; twice, in fact. The first time she had a termination – it was done and dusted before I knew anything about it. The second time the father was my best friend. I've been there'

'The father is her lecturer. I thought that was as bad as it could get' he told Ric, privately thinking that he was wrong. If the father had been his best friend then he might actually have committed a murder. 'Then this morning, we found out that she was expecting twins'

'Which explains why you had to rush home this morning, and why you're going some on the wine' Ric remarked, gesturing towards the nearly empty bottle with a small smile. Edward realised that Ric was still on his first small mug full; he'd polished off the rest of the bottle single-handed and he still hadn't slept. 'You should probably head off. We can't let you near a patient in this state'

'Probably' he agreed 'You won't tell Serena, will you?'

'That you've told me or that you've gotten paralytic in her hospital?'

'Either. Both'

'No, I won't tell her. What I will do is call you a cab' Ric told him, reaching for the phone 'What you've just told me goes no further than these four walls, and I won't mention it again unless you want to talk. But if you do, you know where I am'

'Thanks' he managed a wan smile and thought to himself that Ric was a good friend. Probably a better friend than he really deserved.


	13. Chapter 13

It had been a long night. The kind of thankless hospital function that he'd enjoyed not having to go to while he had been working as a locum, but that now he was the leading light of the Primary Defense team he had no alternative but to shell out £50 that he could ill afford for a ticket and attend. The only saving grace had been that he'd been on a table with Ric, Serena and Elliot, which meant that at least they'd had a laugh between interminably dull speeches. It was gone midnight before he got home to a house that was in darkness, and his first thought was relief that Eleanor had at least managed to refrain from throwing a house party while her parents were otherwise engaged. He let himself in, dealt with a couple of take away wrappers that Eleanor hadn't seen her way clear to throwing in the bin and was about to head to bed when his phone buzzed and he glanced at it. A text from Ric: "Are you feeling alright?". Strange question, he thought to himself as he read the message. It was only when he realised that it had been sent to him, Serena, Michael Spence and Elliot that the reason for it dawned on him and by the time it did it had been joined by "You too?" from Elliot and "No, I didn't have the beef. Enjoy!" from Spence. Food poisoning; not only had they dragged the entire body of Consultants to some awful fundraising dinner, they'd then proceeded to poison those that were stupid enough to order the beef. "I had the chicken" he replied quickly, tossing his phone onto the kitchen table and smirking to himself for a moment, and then he had a thought that wiped the smirk off his face. He might have had the chicken but he was almost certain that Serena had eaten the beef, which meant that she too was likely to be suffering. He grabbed his phone back up and fired off a text to her, asking if she was alright, waited five minutes for an answer and when he didn't get one he phoned her.  
'Serena, are you alright? I've spoken to Ric and Elliot; it seems the beef tonight was lethal. Give me a call, please' he told her answering machine and then he sat and waited.

ooooo

She lay on the floor of the bathroom, enjoying the coolness of the tiles against her burning hot skin, wondering whether it was safe to go back to bed. She'd tried it twice before but both times she hadn't even made it into the bedroom before having to turn back and dash to the bathroom, and in the end she had decided that the safest thing was to lie on the bathroom floor. She could hear her phone buzzing on and off in the bedroom, and she suspected that she wasn't the only person who was suffering from the incompetence of the Holby City Trust's executive catering team, but she didn't have the strength to fetch it. She couldn't do anything except close her eyes, clutch her stomach and hope that she started to feel better soon.

ooooo

'Serena?' she opened her sticky eyes and blinked wearily, wondering who on earth was in her house, in her bedroom, calling her name. Just her luck to be burgled on the one night when she was in no fit state to do anything but lie on the floor and cry, she thought to herself wearily, putting her arm across her eyes to shelter herself from the harsh light that spilled in as he threw open the door to the bathroom. 'Serena?' he thundered into the bathroom and took her in his arms, and she realised that it wasn't a burglar. It was Edward.  
'What are you doing here?' she asked groggily. She was surprised by how pleased she was to see him as he tenderly gathered her up and gently pushed her fringe away from her clammy forehead.  
'Ric and Elliot are ill too. I was worried about you'  
'How did you get in?'  
'How do you think?' he held up Eleanor's house keys that were hooked over his index finger 'I was sure you'd eaten the beef'  
'Well remembered' she sighed. Her stomach was starting to settle now and she allowed herself to tentatively hope that the worst was over. 'You didn't need to come. I'd have been fine'  
'You're lying on the bathroom floor' he pointed out with a small smile 'You don't look fine, you look awful. And Eleanor would never have forgiven me if you choked to death on your own vomit'  
'Don't be so disgusting' she chastised him gently but made no move to pull out of his arms. He was right; there was nothing more miserable than being violently ill with nobody to look after her and it was a long time since she'd been as glad to see him as she was right now.  
'Is there anything you'd like me to do?' he asked eventually. 'Maybe fetch you a glass of water. I don't want you to get dehydrated'  
'It would only come back up' she pointed out miserably. She'd tried sipping water out of the toothbrush holder but it would be a good few hours before she made that mistake again.  
'I could prescribe something – cyclozine maybe – and go and pick it up for you?'  
'In this case, I think its probably better out than in' she replied with a weary smile. 'Thanks though'  
'Do you feel up to going back to bed?'  
'Actually, yeah' she replied. It had been half an hour since she'd last thrown up and her stomach was starting to feel a little bit more settled. For the first time since she'd started feeling ill two hours ago, she thought that she might be safe to attempt a walk back to bed.  
'Come on then' he stood up stiffly then helped her to her feet, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and all but carrying her to the bed. When they got there he lay her down and tucked the sheets around her, grabbing the waste paper bin from the other side of the room and putting it beside the bed just in case. Then, when that was done, he sat himself down in the chair on the other side of the room, balanced his ankle on his knee and folded his arms behind his head.  
'You don't have to stay' she told him, but she was relieved when he made no attempt to move.  
'I do. Quite apart from anything else, I was lucky not to be pulled over driving here so it's probably best if I don't attempt the drive home'  
'Christ's sake Edward' she grumbled irately. As grateful as she was for him being there, she didn't like being used as an excuse for him to drive drunk.  
'Kidding, Serena. I called a cab' he assured her with a chuckle. 'Sorry'  
'Hmph' she grumbled. She didn't like being laughed at, even though she suspected that he wasn't so much laughing at her as making a bad joke that she was too ill to understand.  
'Do you want me to fetch you a hot water bottle?' he asked as her grumble became a groan because although she'd stopped throwing up she was still having bad cramps and they'd been together for long enough for him to easily second guess what she needed.  
'Thanks' she managed and he got up and wandered out of the room, returning five minutes later with Eleanor's ridiculous looking hippopotamus hot water bottle which he tucked into bed with her.  
'Anything else you need?'  
'No, I'll be fine. Any word from Ric?'  
'I should think that texting is the furthest thing from his mind right now' Edward replied with a chuckle, sitting back down in the chair. 'You should try and get some sleep'  
'Mmm' she closed her eyes. Sleep seemed like a long lost friend, and all she could think about was how sick she felt, and how much she hated the fact that she needed Edward. And yet, despite all of that, she dozed off.

Ooooo

'Feeling any better?' he asked with a grin. A glance at the clock told her that it was nearly midday. She'd been asleep for almost twelve hours, and her head was thundering because she was completely dehydrated, and yet she felt better. She no longer felt like she was about to throw up and her stomach was no longer quite so painful.  
'Yeah' she rubbed her eyes and looked wearily around the bedroom. At some point when she was asleep he'd tidied up the clothes that she'd pulled off when she'd arrived home the previous evening, already in the first throes of food poisoning. He'd also conjured up a bottle of Lucozade and a bottle of water which he'd left beside the bed, and a glance through the open door of the en suite told him that he'd had a quick tidy up in there too. 'Thanks for coming last night'  
'No problem' he replied with a smile 'I've called Eleanor. Well she called me actually; wanted to know if I'd seen her house keys and where the hell I was. She sends her love but I suggested she didn't come over. I don't think you're contagious but…'  
'Probably best. How did you get past the alarm last night?' she asked. She remembered setting it the previous evening – she had been in the process of doing it when the grumbling in her stomach had become a lurch and it had dawned on her that it was more than just a G&T too many – but somehow he'd known the code. It wasn't the first time either and it unsettled her.  
'You think I don't know your little trick with the phone number? Writing the alarm code down on the emergency contact label on the unit with the Holby area code because Eleanor never remembers it otherwise?' he pointed out with a laugh 'You invented that to stop me forgetting, Serena. I haven't forgotten it'  
'I seem to remember the code that you could never remember was our wedding anniversary' she pointed out, but she wasn't angry. She was relieved because his knack for knowing the code had been driving her mad since the first time he'd done it.  
'Nah, it was your mother's birthday' he countered, grinning back. 'You do know that the insurance won't pay out if you keep doing that'  
'I'm not intending to get burgled or admit to writing down the code if I do' she retorted. She must be feeling better because last night if he'd tried to wind her up like this she could well have ended up crying.  
'You should drink something' he changed the subject and stood up to pour her a glass of Lucozade, passing it over. She sipped it gingerly, relieved when her stomach didn't object.  
'Thanks. Have you called the hospital'  
'No need. Technically you're on holiday' he replied with a laugh 'Trust you to get sick on your own time'  
'Trust the hospital to poison me on my own time more like' she replied 'The place must be on its knees if everybody who ate beef is in this state. I should call in and…'  
'Michael Spence is there. He's called in some locums and got everything under control. As luck would have it, a lot of the people who are ill are off for Christmas anyway so apparently they're not actually that short staffed'  
'Small mercies' she sighed 'Oh god, it's Christmas tomorrow, isn't it. I haven't even been shopping for Eleanor's present'  
'Me neither' he replied with a grin 'I was thinking of getting her a double buggy, maybe some elastic-waisted trousers and a Call the Midwife box set'  
'You've got your sense of humour back then' she couldn't help laughing, mainly at the thought of their daughter's reaction if she received only baby related gifts for Christmas.  
'If I didn't laugh I'd probably cry or break something' he shrugged 'What are your plans for tomorrow?'  
'Languishing in bed at this rate' she replied with a wan smile. 'At least until Eleanor gets here in the afternoon. I bet she's still expecting me to do a roast with all the trimmings. At least my mother's gone to her sister's for Christmas so I don't have to deal with her unrealistic expectations as well'  
'Why don't you come to us? You can stay on the sofa bed tonight and tomorrow I'll sort something out for dinner. I think Eleanor would like it; she misses you, you know'  
'I probably see more of her now than I did when she lived here' she pointed out. She wanted to shoot his suggestion down in flames, but she couldn't quite bring herself to do it. The last thing she wanted was to have to spend the morning on her own feeling lousy and then have to conjure something up for Christmas dinner, and Edward was right. She missed Eleanor badly – although not quite badly enough to ask Eleanor to move back in with her – and spending the whole day with her daughter while Edward took control of the food situation seemed like just about the best arrangement she could hope for. 'Are you sure? You probably don't want me getting under your feet for Christmas'  
'Sure we do. It'll be fun. Play your cards right and I'll put up some mistletoe' he winked at her.  
'Don't you dare' she couldn't help but laugh because she knew that he was kidding; in her current state, nobody in their right mind would put mistletoe anywhere near her.  
'So is that a yes then?'  
'Yes' she nodded wearily 'I suppose it is'


	14. Chapter 14

**Sorry it's been a while - a few new updates to come soon though :)**

To her surprise, she enjoyed herself. Despite the fact that she still felt fragile, and spending twenty-four hours in the company of her ex-husband would never normally be her idea of a good time, it had been fun. Eleanor had been delighted to see her – she was always delighted to have her parents together, because as far as she was concerned it didn't happen often enough – and Edward had bent over backwards to make her welcome. She'd spent Christmas morning cuddled on the sofa bed under a thick duvet with Eleanor while Edward ferried them tea and toast, and then they'd sat down to an unconventional Christmas lunch of two oven ready pizzas and a garlic baguette because by the time Edward had made it to the shops the previous day the turkeys were long gone. The one concession that he'd made to the fact that it was Christmas was a box of mince pies but nobody really liked them and they sat untouched in the kitchen. In the evening they'd eaten Quality Street and watched the Christmas specials until eventually Eleanor had proclaimed herself too tired to stay up and headed to bed.

'I should go' Serena murmured, making no move to get off the sofa. It was late and it was snowing slightly, and it was Christmas Day. A cab was going to cost the earth and she didn't really want to go anywhere except to bed, but she wasn't so presumptuous as to assume that she was welcome to spend another night on Edward's sofa.

'Don't be silly' he replied, pouring a large Scotch for himself and a glass of Diet Coke for her because she still wasn't feeling quite up to drinking after her bout of food poisoning. 'Stay tonight. Eleanor has loved having you here, she'd be disappointed if you weren't still around in the morning'

'She'd get over it' she replied with a small laugh. Eleanor liked having her around in short bouts but she was under no illusion; if she and Eleanor spent too long in each other's company then they would get fractious and the arguments would start.

'Anyway, it's Christmas, it's snowing and you'll never get a cab. I don't particularly want to be responsible for you freezing half to death, especially not after you've just survived the hospital's attempt on your life'

'Fine' she didn't take any more persuading than that because she really didn't want to go anywhere. 'Thanks for today; it's been nice'

'It has, hasn't it. You, Ellie and I haven't had Christmas together since…'

'Two thousand and three' she supplied. Christmas 2003 had been a harrowing experience for all concerned because she and Edward and been in the midst of their divorce. They'd spent the day together because their daughter had demanded it but it had been an unmitigated disaster that had ended abruptly when he'd made one flippant remark too many and Serena had threatened him with a carving fork. Compared to that disaster, today had been an absolute joy.

'Yeah, well, the less said about that year the better' he agreed with a chuckle 'Just think; maybe next year we'll be spending Christmas together with the grandkids'

'Ugh, don't' she half laughed, half groaned, clapping her hands over her eyes. 'I still can't think about the word grandmother without a shiver running down my spine. Do I look like a grandmother to you?'

'No, you don't' he replied with a laugh 'Maybe a granny' he added, collapsing into laughter as she picked up a cushion and hit him hard with it. 'Sorry, I couldn't resist'

'I don't know what you're laughing at, granddad' she retorted, joining in his laughter because he had a point; it was such a mess, the only thing to do was to laugh about it. 'I thought I had another ten years at least before I had to come to terms with being somebody's grandmother'

'You'll get used to the idea' he assured her 'Anyway, what about your poor mother. A great grandmother at seventy two; she must be going spare'

'I haven't exactly told her' she admitted sheepishly. She had tried to tell her mother on more than one occasion, but she hadn't quite been able to bring herself to do it. She knew that she would have to sooner rather than later – for one thing, she was going to work it out pretty quickly when she next saw Eleanor – but every time she tried she couldn't find the words. What scared her more than her mother's reaction – which would almost certainly be to sigh heavily, commiserate and then continue as if nothing had happened – was the fact that if she said it out loud then that would make it true. While it was contained, just her, Edward and Eleanor in the loop, it didn't seem like such a massive deal. When the news got out, it was going to be all she'd hear about for months.

'You haven't?' he asked, visibly surprised.

'Have you talked to your mother?'

'Don't be ridiculous. Nobody talks to my mother unless it's unavoidable' he pointed out with a small laugh 'But your mother and Eleanor are really close – at least they were the last time I checked. She's going to be upset if she thinks that it's been kept a secret'

'Since when did you care about my mother?'

'I always liked her. You know that' he pointed out, and it was true. Sometimes she'd thought that Edward and Adrienne liked each other more than they liked her. In Edward her mother had found her partner in crime and between them they were the life and soul of any party. Serena had always felt stuffy, staid and boring around them. When she and Edward had gotten divorced there were times when Serena had wondered whether Adrienne was actually more upset about Edward's hasty exit from the family than she was. She was almost relieve when Adrienne had cuffed Edward around the ear and told him he was a disgrace because there had been a part of her that had feared that her mother would actually take Edward's side, especially knowing what she knew about the abortion.

'Yeah, I know you did. I'm just not quite ready for it to be common knowledge. At least while it's just the three of us that know, it's not fuelling the hospital gossip machine' she added, realising as she saw the flash of guilt cross his face that he'd told somebody. She wasn't that surprised; he'd always been a great one for unburdening himself on anybody who'd listen. 'Who have you told?'

'Nobody' he replied, but it was too quick and she could see from his face that he knew he'd been rumbled. 'Okay, Bethan knows. But it's not my fault. Mark worked it out when we were in York and he told her'

'Bethan's in Australia and she and I don't speak' she pointed out wearily, well aware that Bethan was not the end of the story, although his second wife dining out on their daughter's predicament didn't exactly thrill her. 'Who else?'

'Ric Griffin' he admitted sheepishly.

'You told Ric?'

'No, he guessed. Well sort of; you asking him to cover my back made him wonder what was going on and it sort of spilled out. Sorry'

'It's fine' she said wearily 'Honestly; if you had to tell anybody, I'm glad it was Ric. At least he's discrete. I am going to have to tell my mother though, if we're telling people, because if she hears it second hand then my life won't be worth living'

'True' he agreed 'Do you want me to talk to her?'

'I think that would probably constitute hearing it second hand' she pointed out 'Thanks for offering though. I'll call her in the morning'

'Why don't you do it now?'

'What?' she asked, surprised by the suggestion.

'Go on. In the morning you'll find an excuse not to make the call. Do it now'

'It's half past nine at night'

'Unless your mother has changed completely since the last time I spent any time with her she won't go anywhere near a bed until at least one o clock in the morning' he pointed out 'Especially not at Christmas. She and your Aunt Marissa are probably still dancing around their handbags in the living room'

'It's not quite normal, you know' she told him as she unearthed her phone from the bottom of her bag, doing as he suggested because he had a point; it wasn't that late and come the morning she'd find another excuse not to make the call. 'Nobody should like their mother in law as much as you liked yours'

'Your mother's a lot of fun' he replied with a shrug 'She's easy to like. But if it helps, my second mother in law is Satan incarnate; she's given me enough grief over the years to more than make up for Adrienne giving me an easy ride. Are you going to call her then?'

'Yeah' she glanced at the phone with a sense of foreboding and wondered whether it was too late to change her mind, or at the very least to go upstairs and demand that Eleanor told her grandmother what she'd done.

'I'll give you some peace then. Help yourself to anything you want from the kitchen and give me a yell if there's anything you can't find'

'Thanks' she nodded. As he gathered up his glasses and his phone and headed for the stairs she realised that she couldn't put it off any longer and reluctantly she dialed her mother's number.

Ooooo

''Rena?' her mother answered the phone, raising her voice to be heard above a din in the background. For a moment Serena wondered whether Edward was right – whether her mother and Aunt were in some kind of nightclub – but then she realised, it was just Marissa with her television on too loud.

'Hi mum' she curled her legs under her, pulled the duvet around her and settled in for a long chat. 'Are you having a nice time?'

'Lovely, thank you. We're just watching a spot of television. How are you feeling?'

'Much better, thanks' she replied. When she'd spoken to her mother this morning when her and Ellie had called to wish her happy Christmas she was still feeling decidedly fragile and her mother had ended up hearing all about her food poisoning.

'Good. Is everything alright? Only it's a bit late…'

'It's only half nine' she protested, then gave up and decided that she might as well cut to the chase. 'I've got some news'

'Oh, Serena, you've not done something stupid have you?'

'Define stupid' she replied, although technically SHE hadn't done anything anyway. The only person who'd been stupid was Eleanor.

'Letting Edward worm his way back in'

'No, mum, I haven't done that. This isn't anything to do with Edward'

'What is it then? Have you been offered a new job? You're not moving away, are you?'

'No mum'

'A new house then…'

'Mum, you could just let me tell you' she cut in because this kind of guessing game could go on all night, and even then she doubted whether her mother would ever guess that her eighteen year old granddaughter was pregnant. 'It's Ellie'

'Is she alright?' now her mother sounded worried 'She's not ill, is she? She sounded out of sorts when I spoke to her the other day'

'No, Ellie's not ill. She's fine. Sort of' she took a deep breath and said the words that until now she'd more or less successfully avoided having to actually say at all. 'She's pregnant'

'Don't be ridiculous' her mother replied sharply 'She's eighteen'

'I know that, mum'

'Well then how can she be pregnant. If this is some kind of practical joke that you and Edward have cooked up then it's not very funny'

'It's no joke' she replied, wondering why her mother automatically assumed that if it was a joke she could only have cooked it up with Edward's help. 'Eleanor's pregnant, with twins as it happens'

'Now you're just being stupid' her mother snapped 'I don't appreciate…'

'Mum, I'm not laughing at you. I'm telling you the truth' she cut in firmly 'That's why she's come back from University'

'Goodness' her mother's response came out in a gasp of mild speechlessness 'But she's only eighteen'

'Yes, mum, I know'

'Who is the father'

'You don't want to go there' she replied wearily.

'And you couldn't talk her out of it?'

'Have you ever tried to talk Eleanor out of something once her heart's set on it?'

'No, but I've had forty-seven years of trying to talk sense into you one way or another; I imagine this was an equally fruitless endeavor' her mother retorted sharply 'Like mother like daughter'

'You should know' she replied; if she and Eleanor were stubborn – and they were – then there could be no doubt that they'd inherited the trait from Adrienne because her father had spent his life on the path of least resistance.

'Why didn't you tell me sooner?'

'Because I'd hoped that I wouldn't have to; I hoped that Eleanor would see sense or something, I suppose'

'And she hasn't?'

'No chance. I didn't deliberately keep it from you. We haven't told anybody until now'

'Well that's something at least' her mother sighed heavily 'Is Eleanor there; I'd like to talk to her'

'She's in bed. I'll have her call you in the morning'

'Thank you'

'Do me a favour though. Spare her the riot act, I think she's had it to death from me and Edward'

'It's not my place to discipline my granddaughter, no matter how badly she behaves. You've always been very clear about that' Adrienne replied primly 'I just want to tell her that I know, and that I'm not angry with her'

'Fine' she sighed. She contemplated pointing out that her mother was about to be a great grandmother – that was guaranteed to get a rise out of her – but she thought better of it. Her mother had taken the news surprisingly well, but under the circumstances it was probably the reaction that Eleanor needed from her. There was no need to goad her into losing her temper. 'Goodnight then, mum. Send my love to Marissa'

'I will. Goodnight 'Rena' her mother said and rang off. For a moment she sat and stared at the phone, then she put it back on the table beside the sofa bed and curled up beneath the duvet. Edward had been right, she did feel better for having spoken to her mother, but it always unnerved her when he was right.


End file.
